Leamington District Memorial Hospital laid out ambitious plans Tuesday to improve the services it provides to more than 100,000 people.

By fall more babies can be born at the hospital with the addition of a new obstetrician in October. The six-unit dialysis centre that opened six months ago is already at capacity and has enough patients to support a third shift. And once the hospital has raised the money needed, it will open a newly renovated diagnostic imaging centre that will include a stateof-the-art digital mammogram machine and private screening rooms.

The hospital's plans were laid out for MPP Rick Nicholls (PC - Chatham-Kent-Essex), who toured the facility Tuesday.

"We intend to bring (births) back to Leamington," said Roberta Jarecsni, vice-president of patient services and chief nursing officer. "Ninety per cent of births are normal. We can handle them in Leamington."

Nicholls toured the dialysis unit run by staff from Hotel-Dieu Grace Hospital that opened in January after 12 years of lobbying the government. The facility cost about $4 million for construction and equipment, which was raised through donations. Hotel-Dieu provides the staff for the department because Leamington does not have the specialty expertise, said Cheryl Deter, director of patient services.

The unit can accommodate 12 people a day with a maximum of 24 patients Monday to Saturday from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Previously patients were travelling to Windsor, so the local service saves patients driving two hours a day three days a week. Patients come from as far east as Amherstburg, although most are from the Leamington area, said Theresa Campeau, a nurse at the dialysis unit. There are enough dialysis patients to support a third shift, Jarecsni said.

In the emergency room, Deter said more front-line staff were hired, including a clinical resource nurse, to improve service. The hospital has 65 beds, down from 88 in 1989, Jarecsni said.

Dr. Martha Leadman, a radiologist, told Nicholls her department is financially squeezed. The imaging department offers the gamut of technology available at big hospitals including mammograms, CT scans, ultrasound and X-rays. In September, the hospital's foundation will start raising $1.1 million to renovate the department and provide a digital mammogram machine.

"We need to have appropriate screening for breast cancer," Leadman said.

Nicholls said he was impressed with how the hospital stretches a dollar and teams up with other organizations like Hotel-Dieu to provide dialysis services.

"It sounds like the community is really behind this hospital," he said. "It's unfortunate there isn't more funding available."

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