Funding for after-hours and weekend medical clinics is being sought by Amherstburg but it is one of many such requests the province is hearing.
The Town of Amherstburg teamed with the County of Essex to pitch “More Hours, More Patients, More Care” to the provincial government during the recent Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) conference in Ottawa.
Among the local delegation were Mayor Michael Prue, Deputy Mayor Chris Gibb, Councillor Linden Crain, town CAO Valerie Critchley and Deputy CAO/director of development service Melissa Osborne from the town and Warden Hilda MacDonald and county CAO Sandra Zwiers from the county.
According to the town and the county, they “are seeking provincial support to address the lack of weekend and after-hours health care options in a rapidly growing town with an expanding population of seniors that is isolated geographically from hospitals in the urban centres of Windsor and Leamington.
“Amherstburg is an outlier in the County of Essex in that it has no urgent-care clinics or walk-in clinics catering to non-rostered patients. The Amherstburg Family Health Team offers a walk-in clinic one day per week and one day on the weekend, but only to rostered patients. The Town’s Nurse Practitioner-led clinic, which similarly treats only rostered patients, offers no care past 6 p.m. or on weekends,” the presentation adds.
The submission adds: “Funding for additional physicians for the Amherstburg Family Health Team or funding for additional nurse practitioners to the town’s NPLC would enable either facility to dramatically expand the number of patients they serve while also expanding their hours into the evenings and weekends. It would effectively address the issue of care for non-rostered patients by expanding the number of attached patients.”
The request by the county and town states that an annual investment of $300,000 would support the placement of one additional physician or two additional nurse practitioners into existing facilities and provide for the rostering of 1,600 additional patients with the flexibility for expanded hours on evenings and weekends. A $600,000 would allow for the rostering of 3,200 additional patients “and even more flexibility to offer Amherstburg residents quality care when and where they need it most.”
Gibb said the conference gives municipalities a chance to meet directly with provincial officials.
“One of the biggest opportunities you have by going to these conferences is you get to delegate directly to certain ministries,” said Gibb.
The deputy mayor added it is “a great opportunity” to discuss with those who are in the ministries what challenges municipalities face. He pointed out they also met with the Ministry of Long-Term Care about getting more beds in Amherstburg.
Gibb said he appreciates there is only so much money to go around but hopes Amherstburg has got the attention of the province so after-hours and weekend medical care can come to town. He added the town has come to the table with by reducing rental rates to encourage the success of the town’s current nurse practitioner-led clinic and will be amending its Community Improvement Plan to offer incentives to health care providers to locate in town.
“If we can partner with the Ministry of Health and show that we’re willing to work with them, we’re hoping they can come to the table with funding,” said Gibb.
Gibb said he’s “always optimistic” and hopeful they can move the needle forward given Essex MPP Anthony Leardi was part of who they delegated to. Leardi is the Parliamentary Assistant to Minister of Health Sylvia Jones.
Leardi indicated that while he heard the request from the Town of Amherstburg and County of Essex, it wasn’t the only such request that came in.
“It was very similar to all of the other delegations I heard,” said Leardi. “I met with 36 delegations from various parts of Ontario. The Minister of Health met with 36 delegations from all parts of Ontario. Amherstburg was very similar to all the other requests we received.”
Leardi noted there were not only the 72 requests made at the AMO conference, but the ministry also receives requests from some of the other 444 municipalities in Ontario.
“Practically all of them are asking for the same thing,” he said. “We have to take a look at the ones that put together a package which would meet the people’s needs in a superior way. We try to choose the better ones.”
The Ontario government can’t fund all requests, he stated, and the province has to consider the best ones.
“The ministry is consistently looking at proposals from across the province,” he said. “This is an ongoing process that is happening all the time.”
Funding announcements are usually made around budget-time in April, he added.
Leardi said getting to listen to 36 delegations and learning more about the inner workings of the ministry is “an extremely useful process” and that as an MPP, there are always issues to learn and be informed about.
“I’m continuing to work hard to make sure the interests of Essex County are being heard at Queen’s Park,” he said. “In particular, that’s how we got an additional 1,200 patients served at a nurse practitioner-led clinic in Kingsville.”
The request by the county and town states that an annual investment of $300,000 would support the placement of one additional physician or two additional nurse practitioners into existing facilities and provide for the rostering of 1,600 additional patients with the flexibility for expanded hours on evenings and weekends. A $600,000 would allow for the rostering of 3,200 additional patients “and even more flexibility to offer Amherstburg residents quality care when and where they need it most.”
Gibb said the conference gives municipalities a chance to meet directly with provincial officials.
“One of the biggest opportunities you have by going to these conferences is you get to delegate directly to certain ministries,” said Gibb.
The deputy mayor added it is “a great opportunity” to discuss with those who are in the ministries what challenges municipalities face. Gibb said he appreciates there is only so much money to go around but hopes Amherstburg has got the attention of the province so after-hours and weekend medical care can come to town. He added the town reduced rental rates to encourage the success of the town’s current nurse practitioner-led clinic and will amend its Community Improvement Plan to offer incentives to health care providers to locate in town.
“If we can partner with the Ministry of Health and show that we’re willing to work with them, we’re hoping they can come to the table with funding,” said Gibb.
Gibb said he’s “always optimistic” and hopeful they can move the needle forward given Essex MPP Anthony Leardi was part of who they delegated to. Leardi is the Parliamentary Assistant to Minister of Health Sylvia Jones.
Leardi indicated that while he heard the request from the Town of Amherstburg and County of Essex, it wasn’t the only such request that came in.
“It was very similar to all of the other delegations I heard,” said Leardi. “I met with 36 delegations from various parts of Ontario. The Minister of Health met with 36 delegations from all parts of Ontario. Amherstburg was very similar to all the other requests we received.”
Leardi noted there were not only the 72 requests made at the AMO conference, but the ministry also receives requests from some of the other 444 municipalities.
“Practically all of them are asking for the same thing,” he said. “We have to take a look at the ones that put together a package which would meet the people’s needs in a superior way. We try to choose the better ones.”
The province can’t fund all requests, he said.
“The ministry is consistently looking at proposals from across the province,” he said.
Funding announcements are usually made around budget-time in April, he added.
“I’m continuing to work hard to make sure the interests of Essex County are being heard at Queen’s Park,” he said. “In particular, that’s how we got an additional 1,200 patients served at a nurse practitioner-led clinic in Kingsville.”
Town lobbies for medical services
By Ron Giofu
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