Jul. 13, 2005. 06:40 AM
TANYA TALAGAThe proposal would create a unique facility for women offering innovative health programs, research and education.
The institute would keep its affiliation with the University of Toronto and focus on primary medicine, possibly expanding other women's programs such as birth control and sexual assault services.
Moving the perinatal and gynecology program, along with the high-risk birthing centre, north to Sunnybrook hospital's Bayview Ave. site is being discussed so the institute can focus solely on women's health.
Sources say there is talk of it retaining a low-risk birthing centre, although critics don't believe it is feasible and are urging that idea be set aside.
Women's College is a storied hospital. It had the country's first women's cardiac rehabilitation program and pioneered the use of the Pap smear and the lumpectomy instead of the mastectomy.
In a highly controversial move in the late 1990s, the previous Conservative government merged Women's College, a pioneer in women's health, with Sunnybrook hospital.
The move was seen by some as a blow to women's health care and research and the relationship between the merged hospitals has often been rocky.
While in opposition, Dalton McGuinty said the merger put women's health at risk and said a Liberal government would restore Women's to an independent facility.
While it wouldn't again separate the two hospitals, this proposal would create a centre of excellence in women's health, said Virginia McLaughlin, chair of the Sunnybrook and Women's College Health Sciences Corp.
"We've been working extremely hard on the women's health institute proposal, developing it a year ago and attempting to persuade the ministry that this is a very good thing. ... This is not just a local issue but a regional and provincial institute," she said.
Carol Cowan, chair of the Women's College Hospital board, said Ontario needs a "co-ordinating body" that is chiefly concerned with women's health.
A proposal was submitted to the health minister in January to create a centre for excellence in women's health at a newly revitalized Women's College ambulatory care centre.
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`Women's College has always been viewed as the incubator' Carol Cowan, chair of the Women's College Hospital board
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"Women's College has always been viewed as the incubator."
But before the institute can get off the ground, the perinatal and gynecology program at the Women's College site on Grenville St. must be moved to Sunnybrook.
The move is needed to provide extensive medical support to women experiencing high-risk pregnancies or traumatic complications, and it will free up space at Women's to build an ambulatory care centre at the hospital, McLaughlin said.
Cowan said a task force recommended the creation of an institute to focus solely on women's health and research.
"We are working within the context of a huge organization with huge pressures from different sectors," said Cowan.
"That has, at times, compromised the ability to fully develop an ambulatory care centre in a timeline we would've wished."
Both McLaughlin and Cowan said it is now up to the minister to make a decision on an institute.
Besides the proposed capital costs of $106 million to move the perinatal and gynecology program to Sunnybrook, the hospital is also waiting to get a $25 million emergency room expansion plan approved by the health ministry.
The women's health institute proposal has yet to be costed out, said McLaughlin.
Mark Rochon, part of the hospital restructuring commission that led to the Women's/Sunnybrook merger, has written an external peer review on Sunnybrook to help the hospital balance its books.
For 2005-06, Sunnybrook's projected deficit is about $13 million.
Since the hospitals were merged, numerous government reports have suggested the perinatal and gynecology program, along with the neonatal intensive care unit, expand its services and move to Bayview Ave.
David Spencer, a spokesperson for Health Minister George Smitherman, said questions of governance of Sunnybrook and Women's have been raised by those studies. He wouldn't elaborate on what the recommendations were.
The latest report, by Ottawa physician Jack Kitts, is being reviewed by the health ministry.
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