New clinic opens in Lakefield to treat people without family doctors
Open four days a week by appointment only to serve both residents and cottagers in Peterborough County
LAKEFIELD — To alleviate the issue of a short supply of doctors in Peterborough County a new clinic has opened up in the Lakefield area to serve both residents and cottagers.
On Friday, the new clinic launched at the Morton Community Healthcare Centre, just east of Lakefield at Highway 28 and Strickland St. in Douro-Dummer Township.
Lori Richey, executive director of Peterborough Family Health Team, which is launching the clinic, said the clinic will serve people without a permanent doctor, or those who are vacationing in the area and don’t have access to their own doctors.
The clinic will be open four days a week, Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
“We will be reassessing (those hours) as we go and we realize the needs of the people in the community,” Richey said.
Lorie Dunford,a nurse practitioner at the new clinic, said the location in Lakefield is a good spot as it will serve the cottage country community.
The area has seen an increase in the number of “unattached patients,” meaning patients who do not have a family doctor, she said.
“We’re trying to manage that population,” Dunford said.
By providing a health care option for those people it will take away stress and free up space from the emergency room.
Richey says another purpose for the clinic is as a recruiting place for new doctors.
When a new doctor comes into the area, Richey said the clinic will act as a “staging area” to set up patients with doctors.
“This is going to be used as a recruitment avenue for family physicians,” Richey said.
The clinic is not a walk-in, Richey said, and will require patients to make appointments and no narcotics are stored on site.
Peterborough Family Health Team has also recently launched a virtual clinic in the city to connect patients to doctors via video sessions. That clinic is on 185 King St. in downtown Peterborough.