Rotary Club donates hospital beds for Elders of Constance Lake

By Sophie Gagnon – Journal Le Nord

CONSTANCE LAKE FIRST NATION –  Kingston’s Rotary Club has offered to the Sunrise Elders Complex 21 hospital beds and bedside tables, all used but in very good condition. The delivery took place on November 11 and the members of the community gathered together to unload the truck.

According to Lydia Iserhoff-Couture, Health Administrator for the Jane Mattinas Health Centre, the distribution priority will be given to the residents of the Elders Complex, but she remains open to offering the remaining beds, if any, to other members of the community who may have need of these beds. A contract was signed stating that the reselling of these materials was forbidden and that everything offered would stay within the community.

Constance Lake was chosen to receive this delivery of beds and furniture because of Robert P. Wells, author of Wawahte: Canadian Indian Residential Schools. He had worked closely with many First Nations and created ties along the way with the Chief and the Council here.  He shared the needs of the community while establishing a link with Robin Quantic of the Kingston Rotary Club, leading force behind this initiative. This donation of surplus hospital equipment to a Native community is, according to them, the first of its kind in Ontario, and possibly in Canada.

When hospitals make major renovations or when the legal warranties forces them to renew medical equipment even if everything is in excellent condition, the material often ends up in landfills or in storage where they are forgotten and slowly decompose. Be it beds, respirators, compression socks, crutches, walkers, everything goes. Kingston’s Rotary Club signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Providence Care health centre to take their used medical material that is in good condition and redistribute it locally, regionally, provincially or even internationally in third world countries to help those who wouldn’t have the means to purchase the necessary equipment.

This first delivery in Constance Lake is considered a pilot project.Quantic’s long-term vision is to have a central contact point for First Nations who would, in turn, compile the needs and prioritize them to assist with the distribution of the necessary equipment through the HERO project (Hospital Equipment Rotary Outreach).