Medical Centre has big plans for addition
The Creemore area has a tradition of being generous toward its own health care needs, and Creemore Medical Centre Board Chair Bill Mann is encouraged to see that drive remaining strong within the community.
The Medical Centre, after all, was built with $250,000 raised from residents in the early 1980s, after the then-municipality of Creemore donated a piece of land to the cause. The project was conceived, funds were raised,the building was built and doctors’ offices were opened in a span of about nine months.
Now, the Medical Centre Board is attempting to raise $350,000 to build an addition on the building that, according to Mann, will provide needed flexibility for Creemore’s health care requirements in the future.
While it’s hoped that the addition will provide room for one additional family practice upstairs with the ability to serve an additional 1,500 to 1,800 people and perhaps a nurse practitioner as well, what’s equally exciting is the plan for a multi-use room in the basement.
“There are any number of things that could happen in that room,” said Mann. His Board has had preliminary conversations with LifeLabs about the possibility of hosting laboratory/diagnostic services a couple of mornings a week. The new South Georgian Bay Community Health Centre in Wasaga Beach delivers targeted services for seniors, people with addictions and people with disabilities, and those services might be interested in setting up shop in Creemore from time to time. There are heart and diabetes specialists in Collingwood who, if they could make appointments for 10 or 12 local patients in one day, might want to take over the room and run a temporary clinic. Perhaps a new physician might be tempted to run an after-hours clinic in the space.
“The point is, all of these things can be negotiated, but we need the addition first,” said Mann. “This project is not just about getting a new physician, it’s about enabling all kinds of different things to happen.”
A lot of these plans reflect the desires of residents, gathered during a phone survey conducted last year and confirmed during a first public meeting concerning the fundraising drive last week.
The survey showed that only 25 per cent of 3,000 respondents in the Medical Centre’s catchment area – from Duntroon in the north to Highway 89 in the south and from Maxwell in the west to Brentwood in the east – were on the roster of the four family physicans currently working out of the building. Further, half of the remaining 75 per cent did not have their own family doctors, instead relying on after-hours clinics for their healthcare needs.
With an aging population, 80 per cent of respondents felt their health and wellness needs would increase in the next five years. There is also a trend, said Mann, towards newly retired residents wanting to switch their healthcare services from Toronto to the local area.
“With all of these trends, it’s obvious that the Creemore Medical Centre has the ability to be more than just a building,” said Mann. “We really see ourselves as being a health facility that supports the broadbased wellness of the community as a whole.”
The Medical Centre Board has currently raised $151,000 toward its goal. Clearview Township is also borrowing $150,000 toward the total project cost of $500,000.
Mann and his team are busy working the phones, but if you haven’t heard from them and wish to contribute, you can call 705-466-6233.
