Volunteers open walk-in clinic
Concerned group addresses doctor shortage on its own
A group of South Shore volunteers weren’t about to let a health-care crisis stand in the way of a new walk-in clinic set to open in Chester last week.
In fact, the Nova Scotia Health Authority has almost nothing to do with what will be only one of two South Shore walk-in clinics. The clinic will open three times a week and be served by three doctors, two of whom are local.
Thelma Costello, chairwoman of Our Health Centre Association, said it was around last fall when the nine-member board decided it was no longer willing to wait on the health authority to address the area’s doctor shortage. It decided to act.
“We said, ‘Let’s see what we can do as a not-for-profit organization,’” recalled Costello. “We’re increasingly concerned about people still on a wait list, the lack of family doctors and the general dysfunction of the health-care system. We decided to open a walk-in clinic.”
The board reconnected with
physicians who had shown an eagerness to serve the community. A $15,000 grant from the municipality allowed the group to buy medical equipment for the clinic.
The clinic will be housed in Our Health Centre, a health-care
facility dreamed up by Costello and the board a decade ago. It became a reality when the $4.5 million centre opened in November 2016. All but a half a million dollars came from the community through donations and fundraisers.
The vision was to provide residents of the catchment area with adequate and accessible health care. But that’s not exactly what happened. Though the health authority runs a family practice out of the facility, about 500 people in the area remain on a waiting list. That’s the number provided by the health authority, but Costello figures there are many more.
“When we couldn’t deliver we were quite heartbroken and what’s satisfying about this new walk-in clinic is that we’re getting closer to our vision and we’re hoping our fellow residents will see something closer to what they hoped they’d see in our health centre.”
But what also gets Costello excited is the possibility that others in the province might follow suit. “All of us throughout the province have been complaining about the health-care system and its deficiencies and indeed there are those deficiencies, but communities have the power to make health care more accessible, how health-care services can unfold in this province. We’ve tried to address those things here in Chester.”
The community-run centre also offers a variety of other services, including mental health and addictions support groups, healthcare education programs and acupuncture services and a blood clinic.