A walk-in health clinic in the village of Mallorytown, southwest of Ottawa, may soon reopen, but instead of doctors, a nurse practitioner would lead the clinic.
The virtual walk-in clinic in the village closed Jan. 20, after the province reduced the fees they could charge per person from $37 to $20, leaving hundreds of rural residents without primary care.
One of the Ontario government's solutions for rural health care is to fund the clinics with nurse practitioners, who are qualified to provide a full range of health-care services.
"Good news, very good news because they are highly skilled professionals and we're looking forward to having that happen," said Front of Yonge Township Mayor Roger Haley. "But there's so much left to do and the timing is everything."
Haley says his biggest concern is how long it will take, as communities must deal with an application process to be considered for a new clinic.
"That's rather disappointing because the Ministry of Health, in my opinion, put the cart before the horse," Haley said. "They closed the clinic down first and now we have to go through this, without having this new program in place."
Haley says there is no timeline on when a new clinic might open as many other communities can also apply.
The Ontario government plans to fund 150 nurse practitioner-led clinics, but Leeds Grenville MPP Steve Clark, the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, says reopening the Mallorytown location is a priority.
"We're going to get our application in, we're going to get the community's buy-in, and we want to make sure when it comes to the ministry, we are at the front of the line," he told CTV News. "I think it's perfect for underserved communities like Mallorytown, in Front of Yonge Township, and we're going to continue to work on that with the local community."
Another issue Haley brought up was who would fund the new clinic, with Clark confirming the province would foot the bill.
"Nurse practitioner-led clinics are OHIP funded entities. The 25 that operate now see about 80,000 patients," Clark said.
"So OHIP is going to pay, but we don't know who they are going to pay," noted Haley. "Do they pay the pharmacy to hire a nurse practitioner in the clinic? Or do they pay a nurse practitioner to set up his or her own business?"
Haley says when news broke of a possible nurse practitioner clinic in Mallorytown, the pharmacy that housed the walk-in clinic was inundated with calls.
"They were saying 'Good, the nurse is here, I'm going to come in I need to see somebody,' and that's ongoing," Haley said. "We just talked to the pharmacist and he says it's still happening so there's a real need here and all across Ontario, but especially I'm more concerned about this community."
Haley said the initial push for a village clinic began in 2010 under the previous Liberal government.
"We couldn't get the capital funding to make it happen, we had a couple nurse practitioners coming forward to start the clinic, but obviously it was in early days and they didn't recognize the need," Haley said.
"The need was there then but the government didn't pick up on it."
Clark said he continues to work with Haley to address the community's needs in order to have a clinic return.
"It's something that they have certainly identified early on in my term that was of interest, regardless of what the previous government did or didn't do, you've now got a government that sees the value of this and wants to move it forward," Clark said.
"Looking at the success of the existing 25 clinics really shows what opportunity that we've got and as a government we want to continue to build upon some of the decisions that we've made," he added, noting other nurse practitioner-led clinics could also pop up in the region.
"I'm sure there will be other communities, maybe in the riding or certainly eastern Ontario, that are going to see this as a good opportunity. I'm going to focus on Front of Yonge and Mallorytown right now," Clark said.
Haley noted that Front of Yonge residents collected thousands of signatures in support of the clinic, and says he won't stop until a new one opens.
"We'll keep pushing and keep working on it and we're not taking our foot off the gas until is actually happens," he said.
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