The future of hospitals in smaller centres depends on money from hospital foundations.
The foundations depend on you to consider them when you are donating to charities.
Bayshore’s Healthy Tomorrows campaign wants you to consider “planned giving” to these foundations when drawing up your will.
The Bayshore Broadcasting cluster of six stations has created an initiative of planned giving to six participating hospitals.
Bruce Peninsula Health Services Foundation board member Bernie Webber says he’s grateful to Bayshore Broadcasting for creating this promotional campaign.
Webber says their foundation’s monetary needs are unique in that they service several areas including the Wiarton and Lion’s Head hospitals, along with family health clinics in Sauble Beach and Tobermory.
Special events coordinator of the foundation, Gay Ratcliffe says the further away you get from centralized medical services, the more important the sustainability of rural hospitals become.
Ratcliffe says medical equipment is constantly changing and needs to be updated.
She says it’s what attracts doctors to any area.
Foundations such as the one on the Bruce Peninsula can deal with the present but they need to solifiy the future and that can be done through planned giving.
Ratcliffe says there is no such thing as a donation too small and she hopes everyone in their service area will consider planned giving to the foundation in their wills.
Bayshore’s Healthy Tomorrows campaign affects hospitals in the region including those in Wiarton and Lion’s Head; Southampton; Owen Sound; Goderich; Markdale; Meaford and Collingwood.
The first phase of the campaign continues until the end of May and phase two will begin this September.