A new clinic in Echo Bay will serve the surrounding community while attracting people to relocate or stay in the area, says the mayor.
The new nurse practitioner-led clinic will be a satellite of the main office in Thessalon, filling a gap in service in their operation area, which spans from Iron Bridge to Echo Bay.
Although many people from the area will commute to Sault Ste. Marie for health care reasons, this is becoming more difficult for some.
“We have had a number of doctors who have patients from our area [who] are retiring,” said Lynn Watson, mayor of Echo Bay.
He also notes travelling to Sault Ste. Marie isn’t always easy, even if the city is only 20 minutes away.
“This year has been bitterly cold and driving has not been that good,” he said.
There are currently no heath care options in Echo Bay, outside of commuting to neighbouring Sault Ste. Marie.
“Echo Bay doesn’t really have anything. They don’t have a hospital, they don’t have a physician,” said Mary Anne Beith, administrative lead for head office of the North Channel Nurse Practitioner Led Clinic (NCNPLC), based in Thessalon.
She added that communities such as Bruce Mines have physicians, while Echo Bay does not.
The satellite clinic opened in January and Watson said it is being well received.
“Already we’re seeing some good comments from the community,” he said.
While surveying the communities within their operating area, NCNPLC determined there was a large number of orphan patients in the Laird and Echo Bay area.
Beith said Echo Bay was eager to attract the satellite clinic, finding the real estate and preparing the unit with wheelchair-accessible doors.
“I think this is a fabulous example of what can be accomplished when you have people who want to co-operate and there is a need there and the resources,” she said.
The government of Ontario funded the opening of 25 nurse practitioner-led clinics across the province starting in 2007, due to a shortage of physicians.
A nurse-practitioner can primarily do the same things as a physician with the exception of prescribing narcotics or putting referrals in for specialists, though referrals can be made through the consulting physician, said Beith.
NCNPLC in Thessalon was the last of these clinics to open in 2014.
The satellite clinic is open two to three days a week and is staffed by a nurse practitioner, registered social worker and registered practical nurse.
Watson, who has been reeve or mayor of Echo Bay since 1988, sees the clinic as one more way to entice residents to stay in Echo Bay, or to attract new residents.
The satellite clinic was built with expansion in mind, as Watson hopes to attract more health-care services within the same unit.
“All of those types of services that will help our community, saving people from having to go somewhere else,” he said.
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