A new effort has been launched to bring some relief for embattled health-care workers at 100 hospitals and institutions across the country.
“This initiative is really meant to close some gaps on the response to COVID, particularly when it comes to our frontline health-care workers,” says Caroline Riseboro, CEO of Trillium Health Partners Foundation and a member of the steering committee of the what organizers have named “The Frontline Fund.”
Riseboro says organizers hope to raise $50 million that could be used to provide–for example–extra scrubs so caregivers can change their clothes before going home, or hotel rooms for frontline staff with immune-compromised relatives so they don’t have to fear bringing the virus home with them.
The initiative also seeks donations to help source personal protective equipment and ventilators, fund drug trials and vaccine research and to provide mental-health support for staff.
“All of our hospitals in Canada are just facing an unprecedented crisis here,” says Riseboro, who told The Canadian Press that COVID-19 has raised unique needs that “wouldn’t necessarily be addressed through government funding.”
Provincial data provided to CBC News earlier this month showed health-care workers made up roughly one in 10 of the known COVID-19 cases in Ontario. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press)
Money will stay within the province in which it is donated and be allocated according to the number of beds at each institution.
Riseboro says each hospital foundation will decide how to spend the funds on their unique needs.
Organizers say 10 per cent of the funds they raise will go toward the northern territories and Indigenous health.
So far, $8.5 million has been promised by lead corporate partners, including $5 million from the Canadian Medical Association Foundation, $2.5 million from Maple Leaf Foods and $1 million from TD Bank Group.
A young boy holds a sign during the 7pm tribute to health-care workers outside the Lions Gate Hospital in North Vancouver Sunday, April 12, 2020. (JonathanHayward/The Canadian Press Hayward)
The CMA Foundation says its $5-million contribution to the Frontline Fund is part of a broader $20-million commitment to the medical system.
It’s also setting up a $5-million fund to benefit community hospitals and giving another $5 million to a COVID-19 grant program by the Foundation for Advancing Family Medicine.
Another $5 million will help medical students and residents with financial hardships, and $250,000 will go to the Doctors without Borders’ COVID-19 crisis fund.
“We know that there’s the desire out there by Canadians to help, but Canadians are unsure of who to support so we created this national initiative,” Riseboro told CP.
“It is historic in nature. Never have all of these hospitals across the country come together to fundraise in concert for what is probably one of the most significant health crises facing us in a generation.”
With files from The Canadian Press (Cassandra Szklarski), CBC News (Roshini Nair)
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