February 14th is a day for more than just cards and chocolate.
It’s a day to raise money for the South Shore Regional Hospital.
The eighth annual Radiothon is a month away and the Health Services Foundation are gearing up.
This year’s one-day fundraiser is helping fund an ultrasound unit that costs $180,000.
The Radiothon goal is $150,000, with the extra expenditures coming from community partnerships.
Development Officer Alison Clements with Health Services Foundation says they chose the ultrasound machine because it’s something everyone uses.
She says it’s 2 years past it’s industry standard.
“As you can imagine with an ultrasound maching being 10 years old, imagine doing your day-to-day work on a 10 year-old desktop computer,” she says.
“The programs aren’t the same, the processes aren’t the same, you can’t do new processes on it.”
But she says people do wonder why they have to raise money instead of government funding.
“We have to remember that, with the economy, the pie is only so big. The budget is only going to stretch so far,” Clements says.
“And we are just one, technically two hospitals because we cover Fisherman’s Memorial as well, and in Nova Scotia there are dozens more.”
She says if people wants to attract physicians to the area and keep up to date in technology, they need to help.
Health Services Foundations is aiming at raising $150,000 this Radiothon.
To date the one-day fundraiser has raised over $740,000
