The Quinte Health North Hastings Hospital in Bancroft has requested a $10,000 pledge from North Kawartha Township in an effort to raise funds for a new X-Ray machine.
During the January 13 council meeting in North Kawartha, Tammy Davis, Interim Program Director Emergency, Community and Rural Services gave a delegation to council outlining the current needs of the Hospital and the impacts is has on North Kawartha residents.
Davis told council that she had been there before when the hospital was fundraising for a new CT Scanner at which point the township did contribute $10,000 to that cause.
In Ontario, hospitals are responsible for paying for all equipment within their facilities. They get no funding from the province to help them purchase, maintain, or operate their machines.
This means that hospitals are almost constantly trying to raise funds from their communities to afford up-to-date, functioning equipment to serve their patients.
Davis said their last fundraising effort for their CT Scanner took 15 years to complete but they were able to successfully raise the funds to purchase a CT scanner for our small rural hospital. Thanks to that support, they were able to purchase the CT Scanner which has been used to support both trauma and many other ill patients who previously would have been put in a rig to transfer to another hospital in either Belleville or Peterborough. Davis told council that the CT Scanner initiative was actually a net neutral expense as they were able to cover the operating costs through the funds the hospital would have spent on transporting the patients to anther hospital.
David told council, “When speaking to full-time residents, seasonal residents, or visitors who enjoy this amazing community of North Kawartha, many have at some point needed to come to visit the hospital in Bancroft. Whether for a fish hook removal, broken bone, or a more serious illness or trauma, whether arriving by their own vehicle or ambulance, North Hastings Hospital has been and remains their local hospital of choice. The doctors, nurses, and allied staff are highly skilled and trained to care for any patients who come through our door. Our North Hastings Hospital supports a very large geographical area.”
According to their website, the North Hastings Hospital (NHH) is a rural, eight-bed primary care hospital located in Bancroft. Services include a 24/7 emergency department (including emergency obstetrics), diagnostic imaging, physiotherapy, and telemedicine services. The hospital is located in the North Hastings Health Centre alongside Hastings Centennial Manor (long-term care) and CARE North Hastings.
According to Davis, in the last three years we’ve had 2,172 residents of North Kawartha come through their doors to seek treatment. They had a total of 5,537 total days of patient care, meaning the total number of days patients spend in an inpatient facility.
She also explained that these numbers reflect the number from full-time residetns and do not account for cottagers and summer residents in the area.
“We’re not able to give a total number of the volume of people who visit our hospital from the area because if you are here at lovely Chandos Lake at your cottage where you’re a seasonal residence and you call an ambulance, you’re coming to Bancroft but your address that we register you under is where you live which is could be Peterborough, Toronto, Hamilton and so those people we can’t capture to deliver those numbers.”
She told council that Quinte Health has taken a look at what they would like to offer their patients over the next five to 10 years.
“One of the things that we’re looking at for Bancroft is expanding our medical day services. So that’s for people that need treatments or infusions and we’re looking at even satellite chemotherapy. But today we’re facing our next urgent need at our hospital in Bancroft. And that’s what I’m here to share with you. We have to replace our X-ray equipment in Bancroft and some other critical diagnostic equipment and we are required to raise $1.25 million in our community.”
Davis told council that last year the current X-Ray Machine performed over 22,000 tests.
“That clearly tells you that this is a basic diagnostic tool and that no hospital can function without it. And secondly, our hospital is pretty busy for its size. We rely upon it and it’s essential to this community. If we want care close to home, we have to invest in it.”
She told council that the government doesn’t give money to capital equipment for hospitals. They need to fundraise for it and if they don’t then people tend to leave communities where they cannot access excellent healthcare.
“As a member of the North Hastings Fund Development committee, I’m proud to say that our costs to raise a dollar are less than five cents. So I would repeat that less than five cents to raise a dollar. And if you were looking at any kind of a charity, then that’s a big number. So, that means that over $0.95 of every dollar goes directly towards the payment of equipment or patient care.”
The full cost of the new X-Ray machine is $678,883. The hospital is also looking to raise funds for other new equipment as well such as an ECG Machine ($23,883), cardiac monitors ($138,631) and trauma stretchers ($23,435), just to name a few.
Davis asked North Kawartha to consider a pledge of $10,000 toward their X-ray Plus campaign.
Council agreed that it was important to the community and many residents of North Kawartha.
Mayor Carolyn Amyotte said she herself has been to the Bancroft hospital many times both as a visitor and a patient who has used the X-Ray Machine.
A motion was passed to consider this request during 2026 budget discussions.
