Recorder & Times published an article on July 2, 2024
By Sabrina Bedford
The first of its kind in the region, a full-scale primary care clinic for residents without a family doctor in Leeds and Grenville is officially open.
The clinic, operating out of the Mallorytown Pharmacy and Health Centre on County Road 2, opened its doors last week, and officials held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Tuesday morning to mark the occasion.
The clinic is part of a range of services offered by the Upper Canada Family Health Team, a multi-practice health team that works “collaboratively to provide comprehensive and accessible health care” to the region.
As the largest primary care team in the region, the group has practices spread out all throughout Leeds and Grenville, but the clinic in Mallorytown is the first one specifically for unattached patients.
“It’s huge,” said Sherri Fournier-Hudson, executive director of the health team, said in an interview after cutting the ribbon.
The clinic for unattached patients is the only one of its kind of any health-care provider in Leeds and Grenville – a geographic region covering 3,382 square kilometres with a population of 104,070 – and is only open to local residents.
The operation is run by a nurse practitioner, a registered nurse, and a social services worker, Fournier-Hudson said. For now, it will be open on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, but it eventually plans to expand. It is not a walk-in clinic, she stressed, and said the phone line will be open every day for people to make appointments.
Fournier-Hudson said it was hard to put a number on how many people currently don’t have a doctor, but said it’s a large number. Funding for the program, announced by MPP Steve Clark earlier this year, will help the clinic to connect up to 6,600 people to primary care in the region.
Now that it’s open, and a good foundation has been laid, she said the next focus for the team is to expand the hours of operation and services it offers.
“We hope to expand with other programs, like preventative care, and working with our partners as well, to expand other services,” she said.
Those partners include Brockville General Hospital, public health, emergency services, and the local mental health agencies.
“You can only do so much as one organization, so it’s really important for us to work with our partners to build more capacity,” she said.
The clinic has been in the works since early 2023 after the village’s Good Doctors walk-in clinic closed its doors. At the time, its owner said a provincial funding change rendered the operation unsustainable.
Less than a week later, Clark announced he would ask the province to bring a nurse-practitioner-led clinic to the space. Work quickly began to apply for funding, and it was revealed in February of this year the primary care clinic for unattached patients would come to the region.
Mayur Vadher, who owns the pharmacy and has been part of the efforts to bring a clinic back to Mallorytown, said the clinic is sorely needed in the region.
“It’s very important for patient care,” said Vadher, who recently celebrated five years at his pharmacy. “There are many patients without access to health care.”
After the Good Doctors clinic closed, Vadher made it his mission to ensure local patients would again have access to primary care services – not only for their well-being, but to divert traffic from the emergency department, he said.
Compared to the previous virtual care clinic, the new offering will be better funded, more organized, and will allow providers throughout the region to collaborate to provide a more holistic approach to health care, he said.
“It’s better for the community,” Vadher said.
Vadher said he was motivated to invest his time and money on the endeavour because it helps the community and overall patient-care experience, he said.
“That brings me happiness.”
The clinic, a separate area located inside the pharmacy, is staffed with a minimum of three people on the days it’s open. That will eventually expand, officials said.
Lisa Stratton, the head of human resources and finance with the Upper Canada Family Health Team, was on site Tuesday and said it was nice to see the space in use after months of preparing.
The clinic officially opened last Monday, and Stratton said they’ve had a steady stream of calls and foot traffic ever since.
“It started off slow the first day, but the phone calls started coming in and people have been dropping in too,” she said, adding they’ve been well received, and people have been happy the service is once again available in Leeds and Grenville.
“It’s been a very good experience so far,” she said.
For more information on the clinic and how to book an appointment, visit www.ucfht.com/mallorytown.