The Whitehorse General Hospital wants Yukoners to help it raise $5 million over the next five years.

'So what if we don't make it?' Marny Ryder, chair of the Yukon Hospital Corp., told the Star during an interview this morning.

'We plug on, but I think we can (raise the amount).'

The new fundraising campaign was announced Wednesday evening at a reception at the Yukon Interpretive Beringia Centre.

It will be aimed at supporting the hospital's health care advancement project, which will help initiate new programs, expand current services and strengthen employee and medical staff resources.

With northerners' life expectancy being shorter than other Canadians', the North is most in need of health care improvements, said Ron Browne, the corporation's chief executive officer.

The advancement project will include the purchase of an MRI unit, updated mammography equipment, the addition of three hemodialysis units and a renovation to the emergency room at the hospital. The current facility was built in the 1990s, replacing a building on the same site that had opened in the late 1950s.

Currently, 100 patients are sent out of the territory to access an MRI unit each year.

There are significant costs associated with sending patients out of the Yukon. It's estimated that the territory would use the machine for between 800 and 1,000 scans per year, which would held reduce orthopedic and neurology wait lists.

Other plans include operating the current four-slice computer tomography scanner to give it greater diagnostic capacity for obtaining high-quality images without patients having to sit still in the MRI machine for long periods of time.

The addition of the hemodialysis units will help many patients in the Yukon, which currently has no form of dialysis available.

The renovated emergency department will provide facilities such as a cast room, eye examination and treatment room, a larger gynecological room with an attached bathroom, three treatment rooms, a family room and a renovated nursing room.

It's hoped the changes will provide better services, including a walk-in clinic, and help reduce wait times.

The estimated costs of each component are:

MRI: $2.9 million;

Mammography: $650,000;

CT Scan: $1.3 million;

Hemodialysis: $250,000;

Emergency ward restructure and expansion: $10 million.

The entire project is estimated to cost $22 million. All but the $5 million to be fundraised is expected to be covered by the federal and territorial governments.

'It is important to remember that health care is not solely a responsibility of governments,' said Keith Byram, chair of the Yukon Hospital Foundation.

Browne agreed. 'It's important Yukoners look at the hospital as a community asset.'

The fundraising goal has been carefully researched, said Vanessa Innes, the foundation's president.

'We think it's a realistic number,' she said. 'We do believe we'll be able to achieve it.'

Ryder said her first reaction had been one of skepticism about the target amount. However, she indicated that since the board of directors feels it's achievable, it will be fully supported.

The hospital has fundraised $600,000 in a period spanning less than two years easily in the past, she said. Five years for $5 million should not be a problem, she added.

The ways in which the fundraising will occur haven't yet been finalized, she said. They're expected to include the Festival of Trees, a mail-out campaign, utilizing various business contacts and an option of the bequeathing of an estate, said Ryder.

However, though it will be a multifaceted fundraising program, there will be no hospital foundation lottery nor any other type of gambling, she added.

If the $5-million mark is not reached, a decision would be made at the time about what the priorities would be for the hospital.

Browne indicated the current priorities at the hospital are digital mammography and the MRI machine.

However, all the equipment and renovations are hoped to be added to the facility, said Ryder.

'It is certainly something that has been indicated is really needed,' she said.

'Like other jurisdictions, the Yukon faces constantly-growing demands within an already-stressed system,' Health Minister Peter Jenkins said in a statement.

The campaign, which has been named Under Our Wing, is the largest health care campaign in the Yukon's history.