‘HOPE’ FOR UNATTACHED PATIENTS WHEN GRAVENHURST HEALTH HUB OPENS STARTING THIS FALL WITH NEW MEDICAL SERVICES MODEL FROM BIRTH TO DEATH
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com
GRAVENHURST — Unattached residents with health care anxiety can rest assured “hope” isn’t far off. And coming here closer to home.
The Gravenhurst Health Hub (GHH) is well on its way to building space for three new nurse practioners, two nurses and comprehensive family wellness services from birth to death.
And eventually more doctors.
All of which will provide more than just primary care.
An update last night by the Rotary Club of Gravenhurst, the driving force behind the second floor renovations at the Cottage Country Family Health Team (CCFHT) offices site next to the town hall, provided an optimistic picture(s) of the walls, halls and washrooms renovations as it nears the end of its first phase this month.
A panel of nine speakers explained the changes and what they mean at the Gravenhurst Opera House.
“It showed promise and hope,” said retired local doctor David Hillyard, following the almost two-hour 30-minute presentation and Q&A.
A session that revealed a lot more information, details and a video walk-through of the work as of July 9. Development lead Lorraine Johnston led the tour joined by Lauren Parsons who has just been named GHH’s executive director.
They walked viewers through the currently empty space down halls and inside wall explaining the new services coming on board the next year.
Which in addition will have a multi-purpose primary care hub that can be configured for existing programs and new services coming.
- The first news up was the announcement of initial tenant, Dynacare lab services. It plans to open “October or November,” said vp Craig Upshaw, who said their exiting office will move to the second floor office and will be open to all patients and doctors for referrals, walk-ins, appointment bookings and online patient results — for a fee.
- Donna Kearney, executive director of Muskoka Hospice, too, stood up to say they will have an active outreach office at the GHH. It will include a social worker and nurse to assist with its home palliative care program. But no inhouse beds.
- And Simcoe Muskoka Connextions is moving in with a child welfare program office.
- Also referenced to be part of the GHH is a “clinical pharmacist” from PharmaChoice.
- The Community Nursing Clinic will also re-locate upstairs to assist with IV care and dressing changes for wounds rather than have patients receive a home visit.
The positive progress and steps are part of a fluid and emerging new Muskoka medical model of lumping more and more health services into a one-stop shopping centre in an extra 12,000 square feet of space. The CCFHT building began in 2008 and opened in 2010.
- The second floor renos will make room for more doctors on the ground floor as they are hired.
- Changes will also allow more dedicated space for CCFHT’s two pediatricians, one psychiatry and one general paediatrics person to come to Gravenhurst. And there will be space for visiting specialists who come to the community.
- The nurse practicioners nurses will being working out a new second floor primary care health hub that serving both attached and unattached patients. The CCFHT recently received notice in April of $2.1 million in provincial funding for the three new NPs and two more nurses.
The NPs could pick up half of the estimate 6,000 Gravenhurst residents who are unattached to a local doctor now. That’s said to be half the town’s population.
Which means, as Rotary emcee Tom Long, reiterated: “If you build it … they will come.”
On that note, among the other eight speakers they said extra room will build in flexible space to accommodate not only visiting locum doctors but short-stay specialists.
Exciting student doctor news
Some more good news came with word that Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) students will also be taking up the slack by taking on small patients loads under supervision in a “teaching clinic.”
In addition similar talks are underway with a new medical school opening in 2028 at York University, which could lead to a similar partnership with students from that Toronto school.
Those talks could also involve space in the former Georgian College campus building that recently closed in Bracebridge.
Rotarian Ajazzudin Mohammad was encouraged by that news.
He said it might in part help Muskoka return to replacing the loss of “front-line” health care worker training at the campus with other likewise educational opportunities. He said “now there is nowhere for them in Muskoka or Orillia to train to become PSWs” — a vital trade as support services try to move closer home care in growing and aging Muskoka communities.
Diagnostic services possible
Another possible prospect is the addition of diagnostic tools requiring an expensive radiology licence.
That includes x-ray — which is “all digital now and no camera photo plates” — ultra sound and bone density, said doctors Drew Schemmer and Mark Baerlocher, who teamed up to talk about the promising possibility.
The pair are very well connected in the field and are investigating buying a dormant licence or paying for a new one. Though it could be extremely costly. They estimate between $1.35 million and $2.1 million to put a clinic together. That would be another large future fundraising effort.
The Rotary fundraising initiative is already at $1.2 million of its three-phase $1.75 million goal in just more than a year.
That answered Mary Gauthier’s question.
Recruiting medical providers
David Gravelle called the Gravenhurst Health Hub a “gift.”
Particularly, said the human resources staff recruiter for the Muskoka and Almaguin Ontario Health Team, in that it already had infrastructure in place is mere doubling its space above.
An “eternal optimist,” Gravelle shamelessly admits he’s “cocky and confident” he can fill the space. “But it’s all about timing.
“I know which doctors have approached me who want to either slow down or retire.”
Gravelle said: “You should know that an established family doctor probably has somewhere between 1,500 and 2,000 patients. It takes two doctors to replace that existing doctor.
“It’s because of how physicians are compensated, the feminization of medicine — female doctors have typically smaller practice loads because they’re still the primary caregiver at home. And having a family or expanding their family.”
“So we’re creating succession plans with physicians and then ultimately bringing new people to the community. So we can get people off a wait list and get them attached to a primary care provider.”
Already he said his efforts, which include for the two hospitals, have paid off with 30 jobs alone the past three months.
Admittedly most of those have been “locums” — short term fill-ins — he said.
He said he’s in direct contact with about 135 professionals who have expressed interest in Central Ontario opportunities.
“It’s all about when they’re done, they’re training (or contracts), when they want to move from the UK or U.S. to Ontario, when their kids are going to start school.
He said: “Sometimes a bunch of new doctors start in July. Other people are off the cycle, and start in January. So there are a number of factors of when people will start.”
Housing staff in Muskoka
Of course “going back to what I said — if I don’t have places to put them, that is another factor in terms of that whole cycle.” Housing is huge but not insurmountable, he said.
“Now, we have a strong pipeline of candidates. We’ve got some people that we’re going to show through the site, and we want to actually get access to the (GHH) video tour, and email it to a few people to show them how far we’ve come in the last number of months. “It’s part of a whole wooing process. So I can’t give you a number. I can’t even give you timing, but I just let you know that I’m good at what I do. I will help meet this objective with all the other people on this stage and I’m confident.”
Which was all good to hear for the supportive audience of more than 100 people.
Question and answer follow
Among them Paul Clairmont added: “I appreciate what the town’s been doing over the years, as well as what the Rotary Club has been able to help and participate in. It has taken a long time. This is what grows a community. This makes a community. That’s why people select certain communities.”
Another retired doctor, Richard Daniels, noted that priority should be given to patients of doctors who retire to ensure they are first on new patient wait lists.
Sandra Holdsworth also asked if the changed GHH will provide longer working hours so residents employed out of town could get home for appointments.
She was told the emergency after-hours call-in clinic could be looked at to expand — depending on availability of doctors and nurses.
And Holdsworth wondered whatever became of the online Ocean booking program service that once let patients make their own appointments.
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