Sinai Health is a national leader in caring for the smallest and most vulnerable premature babies. Every year, 1,100 critically ill newborns receive care at Sinai Health’s Newton Glassman Charitable Foundation Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) within The Frances Bloomberg Centre for Women‘s and Infants‘ Health. Caring for these youngest, most vulnerable patients requires the world-class expertise of our NICU clinicians, but also the most up-to-date equipment.
“These babies require an environment that mimics the mother‘s womb, so they can grow, thrive and develop,” says Dr. Prakesh Shah, Paediatrician-in-Chief. “In order to continue providing the most supportive environment, we need incubators that precisely control humidity, temperature and air flow. But our existing fleet of incubators no longer reflected the gold standard our tiniest patients deserve.”
In response, Sinai Health Foundation launched a fundraising campaign in January 2024 with the goal of raising the $7 million necessary to replace all 95 incubators in the NICU. This integrated campaign helped raise awareness among our community of the critical need to equip Canada’s busiest NICU with state-of-the-art incubators. And our community delivered! With the generous support of our donors and a gift match of up to $140,000 from the FDC Foundation, the campaign reached its goal by the end of March 2024, and the entire fleet was able to be replaced with 95 new incubators.
“These beds have been a great addition to our NICU. They’ve allowed us to improve the care that we provide to our extremely vulnerable little patients,” says Collette Pryce-Jones, a Nurse Clinician in the NICU. “They provide hands-on access for our teams, parents can be closer to their babies, and with the temperature, humidity and infection control that these beds provide, the babies are kept healthier than ever before.”
Adds Dr. Shah, “We are extremely grateful to our donors who made this possible. We now have incubators in the NICU that allow us to deliver the kind of care these tiny patients, and their parents, deserve.”