Stratford Beacon Herald published an article on Nov 06, 2024
By Bill Atwood
Residents in Huron and Perth counties who don’t presently have access to a family doctor now have more options for primary care after the recent launch of the new Unattached Care Clinics by the Huron Perth & Area Ontario Health Team.
A collaboration between the regional health team and local family health teams, these clinics, which are located throughout the region, are intended to give people access to primary care closer to home, said Robin Spence Haffner, executive director of the Listowel-Wingham and Area Family Health Team.
“We have a lot of residents in Huron and Perth counties who have to travel to things like walk-in clinics because they don’t have a family doctor,” Spence Haffner said.
“That’s really what this program is designed to do, is give people access to primary care close to home so they’re not relying on walk-in clinics that are not available in our area . . . (and) going to the emergency department.”
There are three main areas of care that these clinics will provide, including:
- Treatment for acute illnesses and management of chronic conditions’
- Mental-health navigation and support, and
- Preventive care, such as cancer screenings, vaccinations and wellness advice,
These are not walk-in clinics, so patients will be required to make appointments and will be able to go back for ongoing care, Spence Haffner explained.
“When you go to a walk-in clinic, you might need a prescription refilled, or you’ve got a cold or something like that, but they don’t book you for a followup necessarily. It’s really just a one-and-done sort of thing, whereas this program is really designed to give people access to primary care.”
Along with the Listowel location, these clinics are located in Stratford, Wingham, Goderich, Zurich and Exeter, and are available for patients within a 40-kilometre radius of each site. The clinics come at a time when an increasing number of Ontarians do not have a family doctor. According to the Ontario College of Physicians, there are now 2.5-million people in the province without access to a family doctor – a number could reach four million by 2026.
“It is clear that millions more Ontarians will go without a family doctor unless immediate changes are made to provide supports for family doctors,” said Dr. Mekalai Kumanan, the college’s president, last year.
“It’s so fundamental to people’s wellness . . . and we haven’t seen investments like this in primary care in decades. . . . So what we’re hoping to do with this program is really prove that this is a model that gets more people access to primary care, so that we can get more investment and get to that goal – everyone in our community having access to high-quality, team-based primary care. So this is a step in the right direction,” Spence Haffner said.
The goal is to provide care to a few thousand patients across the region with a team that includes two nurse practitioners, mental-health service providers and a registered nurse. The clinics are being funded for a one-year period as part of a $110-million investment from the province aiming to connect as many as 328,000 people to primary care, a press release from Perth-Wellington MPP Matthew Rae said. The province is investing a total of $546 million over three years into primary care, the release added.
While this investment is not enough to fill the primary-care gap, the health team is hopeful the clinics will continue to get funded past that one year mark, Spence Haffner said.
“I think that that we’re getting indications that it should be. I mean, it is comprehensive team-based primary care. Ideally, people do get permanently attached to a family doctor or nurse practitioner. But patients . . . can expect us to continue to provide the care as long as the program is around,” she said.
More information on these clinics and how to book an appointment can be found at hpaoht.ca/ucc.