Queen Elizabeth Hospital makes emergency request to foundation

Charlottetown's Queen Elizabeth Hospital is in urgent need of a piece of equipment for infant care in its emergency department.

The Queen Elizabeth Hospital Foundation is working to raise the roughly $40,000 needed to purchase a panda warmer, which is like a small hospital bed specifically designed for infants. The foundation is already about halfway to its goal.

The hospital has panda warmers in other departments, but now the emergency department needs one too thanks to the recent surge in cases of respiratory syncytial virus.

""It's actually the worst season on record for Prince Edward Island, but also across the country," said Tracy Comeau, CEO of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Foundation.

When a panda warmer is needed in the emergency department, Comeau said staff are literally running to bring the device because every minute is crucial when it comes to infant care.

Emergency requests for equipment are unusual, said Comeau. The last time it happened was early in the COVID-19 pandemic, when the hospital asked for mobile dialysis equipment for a COVID care unit.