As the first-of-its-kind in Atlantic Canada, the Deanne Reeve Pelvic Health Suite represents much-needed change.
When Reeve, a Nova Scotia woman who passed away at the age of 60 following a late diagnosis of cervical cancer in 2020, her two best friends, Liz Rigney and Sheri Morgan, knew they had to do something to prevent more women from suffering similar fates.
The pair formed the Orchid Gala Committee to raise money for the health suite, contributing more than $500,000 to the project.
“She was very giving, and she was very generous,” Rigney says. “And her job was really to lift other people up without having any spotlight. So, we’re so happy that we can shine a spotlight on her and her memory.”
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Now Reeve’s memory will live on in the halls of Dartmouth General Hospital (DGH).
“What we’re going to be doing here is doing urology procedures and gynecology procedures,” says Dr. Scott Mawdsley, a gynecologist at DGH.
“The urology procedures are cystoscopy, which involves using a small camera looking inside the bladder of men and women. For gynecology procedures, we’re going to be offering hysteroscopy, which involves putting a small camera up inside the uterus.”
The increased access to procedures will be life changing, says Maggie Archibald, a patient.
“You know, the wait times were certainly long and getting appointments and being seen were particularly long. So, I think with this new pelvic health suite, it will help reduce some of the burden on that,” Archibald says.
In the past, wait times for cystoscopy and hysteroscopy procedures have been months long. But Mawdsley says, thanks to the new suite, wait times could be reduced to weeks.
Archibald hopes the pilot project’s success will send a clear message to the province.
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