New POGO clinic brings care closer to home for children with cancer
Launch event celebrates partnership between Pediatric Oncology Group of Ontario (POGO), Peterborough Regional Health Centre and The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids)
Peterborough, ON, September 24, 2018 – On Monday, September 24, the Pediatric Oncology (POGO) Satellite Clinic at Peterborough Regional Health Centre (PRHC) officially opened its doors to provide care for children with cancer right in their community.
For these patients and their families, care closer to home means a reduction in travel time, costs to receive care elsewhere are avoided, and less loss of income and separation from home and community, all while maintaining confidence that their child is receiving the best quality care.
“Having a POGO clinic close to us makes life as a parent a whole lot easier,” says Theresa Serracino-Inglott, whose son Anthony is currently receiving treatment at PRHC after being diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia in August 2017. “Feeling financially strapped is a common thread among families of children with cancer, and these satellite clinics give some relief to that. I want to say how grateful we are to POGO and to Peterborough Regional Health Centre for taking on this partnership to bring a POGO Satellite Clinic to our community. I can’t help but think of future ‘POGO families’ in our area, and how the availability of this clinic will ease their journey.”
The Pediatric Oncology Group of Ontario (POGO) now supports highly coordinated care at eight Satellite Clinics across the province, each linked to one of the five major hospitals with a pediatric cancer program. In addition to the benefits for patients and their families, shifting thousands of visits and hundreds of inpatient days to POGO Satellite Clinics each year provides additional capacity for specialized care in these hospitals’ pediatric cancer programs.
(L to R): Jill Ross, CEO, and Dr. David Hodgson, Medical Director, POGO, join with Nancy Martin-Ronson, VP, Chief Nursing Executive and Dr. David McLaughlin, CEO, Peterborough Regional Health Centre (PRHC), and many families, patients and healthcare team members for the opening of the POGO Pediatric Oncology Satellite Clinic at PRHC
The POGO Satellite Clinic at PRHC operates under provincial guidelines and in collaboration with The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) in Toronto. SickKids generates the cancer diagnosis and has ongoing oversight for the child’s care. The multidisciplinary healthcare team in the POGO Satellite Clinic at PRHC includes doctors, nurses, child life specialists, and social workers, and provides a range of high-quality pediatric cancer services.
“The POGO Satellite Clinic at Peterborough Regional Health Centre fulfills an important goal of POGO’s most recent five-year Plan for the childhood cancer system in Ontario: to deliver the right care in the right place,” says Dr. Paul Gibson, Associate Director, Clinical Affairs at POGO. “Establishing this POGO Satellite Clinic was informed by evaluating service demand, the clinical requirements of our patients and the needs of their families, and the clinical and program support capacity of hospital healthcare teams. We are proud of our work with the wider community and with the Ontario government to fulfill a joint mission to bring state-of-the art services to children with cancer and their families in the Peterborough area, right where they live.”
“Whether it’s chemotherapy, fever management or some other type of treatment, after their initial cancer therapy, many children will be eligible to have some portion of their cancer care delivered in a POGO Satellite Clinic,” says Dr. Jim Whitlock, Division Head of Haematology and Oncology at SickKids and Director of the Garron Family Cancer Centre. “In this unique partnership, the healthcare teams at SickKids and PRHC work collaboratively to provide integrated, seamless care for these children under the provincial satellite system facilitated by POGO.”
“The expenses of travelling for cancer care, the stress of leaving other children at home and loss of income due to travel are just some of the challenges families can face,” said Dr. Peter McLaughlin, President & CEO of PRHC. “Peterborough Regional Health Centre is pleased to partner with POGO and SickKids to ease this burden through the shared care provided in our POGO Satellite Clinic. I want to thank the PRHC Foundation for committing their support to this excellent partnership. The Foundation has agreed to undertake the fundraising that will allow us to purchase the equipment and technology needed to move this important initiative forward, bringing care closer to home for our patients and their families.”
About Peterborough Regional Health Centre (PRHC)
Peterborough Regional Health Centre (PRHC) is a regional hospital delivering acute healthcare to a rapidly-growing population of more than 300,000 in Peterborough and the surrounding communities, including the First Nations of Curve Lake, Hiawatha and Alderville. With an annual operating budget of $300 million, PRHC has 435 inpatient beds and offers a wide range of services, including specialized programs in renal, stroke, cardiac, cancer care, vascular surgery and mental health & addictions. We are the region’s largest employer with more than 2,400 staff, 400 physicians with privileges, and 600 volunteers. For more information, visit www.prhc.on.ca.
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