One doctor's quest to keep Northern sick kids closer to home

On that date, the North East Local Health Integration Network's board of directors is expected to give Murray and his colleagues an indication on where they stand for a possible expansion of the North Eastern Ontario Health Centre for Kids (NEO Kids) – the hospital's centre for pediatric health care services. 

Murray, who is medical director of the hospital's family and child program, knows firsthand what it's like for children to travel south for complex medical care.

When he was a child, Murray and his parents travelled from Sudbury to Toronto on a regular basis to treat his cleft palate.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Sudbury did not have the means to treat his condition. 

“I spent years travelling back and forth to Sick Kids (in Toronto) for appointments and operations,” Murray said.

That experience actually inspired him to become a pediatrician to help children in his hometown and offer them the kinds of medical services that were not available when he was a kid.

“Any time you have to travel as a family, it's a lot of money, a lot of time, and it usually has an impact on other members of the family,” he said.

There are currently five pediatricians at Health Sciences North, but funding from the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care would allow for at least three more doctors.

But to bring in new pediatricians, NEO Kids needs to expand.

“We have enough space to accommodate an additional pediatrician, who in fact has joined our group and will officially be on staff as of July 1,” Murray said.

Numbers rising

Discussions about that expansion first started with a vision exercise 12 years ago. 

Since then, the need for an expansion has only become more evident. 

“Our total visits in terms of patient volume has gone up significantly,” Murray said.

Until a few years ago, NEO Kids saw anywhere from 15,000 to 20,000 patient visits per year.

Today, the centre accommodates more than 35,000 patient visits per year, and receives 180 referrals each month.

“When you consider there are only five pediatricians, that's a lot of patient referrals,” Murray said.

When it comes to travelling, the hospital refers 125 children per year to Sick Kids and the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario, and about 500 a year from across northeastern Ontario. 

But the total amount of children who travel for outpatient treatment is actually much higher. Many children are referred to clinics and specialists through a variety of ways (family doctor, walk-in clinics, pediatricians, etc.), making numbers difficult to track.

One thing HSN can say for certain, though, is there are a lot of children and their families travelling for medical care.

Children in Sudbury are also above the provincial and national averages for many chronic illnesses.

In all of Canada, for example, around 8.3 per cent of children have asthma, while 9.1 per cent have the disease in Greater Sudbury.

Allergy rates among children are also higher in Greater Sudbury at 26 per cent, compared to 22 per cent for Canada.

And 29 per cent of children in Greater Sudbury are considered to be overweight or obese, while in Canada, the rate is 22 per cent. 

Murray's vision for NEO Kids would not just encompass Greater Sudbury, but the entire northeast.

He and his colleagues have looked at four areas of expansion for tertiary care: neurology, gastroentology – which deals with the stomach and issues like acid reflux; cardiology; and endocrinology – which handles the diagnosis and treatment of diseases related to hormones, and includes thyroid disorders and diabetes.

“We have a significant obesity problem here in Sudbury, and endocrinologists play an integral part in a lot of healthy weight initiatives across the province,” Murray said.

Where to put it

New infrastructure will be needed to welcome specialists in those fields. 

Health Sciences North has eyed an area between the current NEO Kids Building and the Children's Treatment Centre for a new building to expand NEO Kids.

The new facility would take up part of a hospital parking lot along Paris Street. Any lost parking spots would be moved underground. 

Because the project has not yet received capital funding – or approval – there are no detailed architectural plans for the building.

Murray said it would likely be at least two storeys high and would accommodate laboratory, radiological and neuro-diagnostic services in a child friendly environment.

Murray said he hopes to team up with Ronald McDonald House to have a small space on the property for families who have travelled to Sudbury for care.

First-hand experience

The new space would help people like 12-year-old Emily Richer, who travels from Massey to Toronto with her parents once a year. Over three days, she and her family attend a dozen appointments.

Emily was born with congenital central hypoventilation syndrome, a condition that prevents her from breathing when she falls into a deep sleep.

Since she was a baby, Emily has slept wearing a ventilator.

She also has around 14 other medical issues, including visual impairment and low muscle tone – which keeps her bound to a wheelchair. Emily also has developmental delays, can't speak and must be fed through a tube.

The yearly odyssey to Toronto takes a large toll on everyone, but on Emily in particular, said her mother, Lisa. 

“Travelling is very hard on her.”

She said even cutting down on a few Toronto appointments would mean possibly being away from home one day less, or having a less hectic and scary experience for Emily.

“Our doctors in Sudbury are perfectly capable,” Richer said. “I would have no qualms whatsoever leaving the majority of her care with Dr. Murray and (Emily's pediatrician) Dr. (Tara) Baron, because we have such a great rapport with them.” 

Emily does travel to Sudbury for some clinics, including Botox injections to relax her muscles. 

Call your MPP

Murray said in an ideal world the NEO Kids expansion would have been completed five years ago.

“This has been a long time coming,” he said. “We've been working on this, I would say, 10 or 12 years now.”

While public support for the new centre has been strong, he said it's important for supporters to contact their local representatives and let them know how important the project is to them.

“We need to get this on the agenda of people who don't necessarily see children's health care as a big problem,” Murray said.

He fears while the government struggles to figure out how to provide care for Ontario's expanding population of senior citizens, the province's youngest citizens, at least in the northeast, might be getting overlooked.

“I'm not suggesting for a second that (senior care is) not a priority — it is absolutely a priority,” he said. "However, there's no reason why we can't do two things. “There's no reason why we can't have a parallel system where we're looking after the past and we're looking at the future.”

- Jonathan Migneault, NorthernLife.ca

BY THE NUMBERS: MEDICAL CARE AT NEO KIDS

35,000 - the number patient visits per year
180 - the number of referrals handled each month
5 - the number of pediatricians on staff