It’s Time Campaign Launch

In its endeavor to elevate and strengthen Island hospital care, the Victoria Hospitals Foundation (VHF) is exceptionally proud to commit its largest investment into Royal Jubilee (RJH) and Victoria General (VGH) hospitals through the launch of a multi-phase campaign, It’s Time.

The first phase, It’s Time for Surgical Innovation, will raise $17 million to bring brand-new minimally invasive surgical procedures to the Island, starting with robotics.

Robotics will dramatically enhance the proficiencies of Victoria surgeons through unparalleled accuracy, dexterity, and control during complex procedures. Island Health’s Division of Urology will be first in using robotics technology, with other surgical specialties to follow. Training and staging for implementation in our hospitals is well-underway to operationalize the robotics system which has an expected arrival date of late 2024.

“Robotic surgery is becoming the standard worldwide for urologic surgery, and for many other specialties like otolaryngology (ENT) as well as general, gynecologic, and thoracic surgery. We have taken innovation as far as we can locally, but robotics is key to take surgical innovation to the next level,” shares Dr. Jeff McCracken, Chief Urologist for RJH and VGH. “Robotics will enable us to be much less intrusive and demanding on our patients’ bodies, perform new surgeries we simply couldn’t do before, minimize the length of stay of patients, alleviate the intensity and length of care our valued nurses provide in recovery, and recruit the very best surgical team members. It will undeniably decompress the hospital system. We are one of the first community centres to bring robotics into our operating rooms—it really is that impressive what we are doing here as a community.”

Robotic-assisted surgeries will provide prostate cancer patients with 90% less chances of blood transfusions, 50% shorter stays in the recovery room, and 60% shorter stays in hospitals. The robot is proven to have better patient outcomes across the board. Not only this, but it will inevitably support significant cost savings to the hospitals with shorter length of stays and less complexity in post-surgical care—an outcome learned in the analysis and research stage of initiating surgical robotics.

During today’s campaign announcement, the Victoria Hospitals Foundation shared a transformational commitment of $2.5 million from local family foundation, the Jawl Foundation, to support the acquisition of Vancouver Island’s first surgical robot.

“This transformational gift has deep meaning and is championed in pride and gratitude for our local surgical teams. In becoming an early adopter of our robotics vision, the Jawl Foundation gave us the trust and confidence needed to endeavour a revolutionary project of this scale,” reveals Avery Brohman, CEO of the Victoria Hospitals Foundation, adding how profoundly honoured surgeons were for the pledge.

In parallel to robotics, It’s Time for Surgical Innovation will introduce a suite of innovative surgical equipment across five surgical specialties: general surgery, gynecology, ophthalmology, otolaryngology (ENT) and urology, further advancing minimally invasive local surgical procedures.

Over 31,000 surgeries were performed at RJH and VGH last year. Over 210 surgeons have privileges in the operating rooms of RJH and VGH.

“This is our first step in pursuit of the gold standard of care on Vancouver Island. Over the next three years, we will be intentional about the investments we make into our two acute centres, ensuring best in class technology and equipment is operationalized—and it starts right now, by introducing robotics and more minimally invasive surgical innovation into our operating rooms,” adds Brohman. “Our donors continue to play an integral role in how we advance local healthcare together, and we extend a profound thank-you to every person and business that joins us on this remarkable journey.”