Mobile clinic will offer care where needed
Doctor aims to keep treatable cases out of the emergency room
WATERLOO — Health care will head out on the streets to meet marginalized people where they are in Waterloo Region with a new initiative headed by Sanguen Health Centre.
“It’s a rolling medical clinic,” said Dr. Chris Steingart, founder and executive director of Sanguen.
The new mobile health clinic will provide essential primary care to people in the community who face numerous barriers to seeing a doctor or getting medication, which often means treatable health issues like a wound becoming serious and leading to a hospital visit.
“We know this is going to have an impact,” Steingart said. “It will keep people out of the emergency department.”
The project is getting $500,000 over five years from Telus as part of the communication company’s “health for good” branch that’s supporting mobile health clinics across Canada to bring quality, compassionate care to people living on the street, adding to provincial funding to buy the vehicle.
It’s equipped with a chair to draw blood for testing and checking vital signs, plenty of space for medical and harm reduction supplies, and a private examination room with fridge for vaccinations. Telus is providing the technology inside, including electronic medical records.
“It’s everything that a medical clinic has,” Steingart said.
Sanguen had been providing basic medical care from its community health vans, which hand out essential harm-reduction supplies, clothing, toiletries and food. But that was far from ideal because it had to be done outdoors at the roadside with only limited supplies that could fit on-board.
The purpose-built bus, which it’s hoped will be on the road by the end of February, will be staffed by a nurse practitioner as well as with support and outreach workers to connect people with other services. The bus will stop in some of the same places in the region as the van, which has already built trust within the community.
Steingart was quick to give credit for all the people and agencies that made the project possible by working together to meet a common need. “I don’t see this as a Sanguen project. This is a community project.”
Regional Chair Karen Redman agreed that partnerships like these are essential and thanked Telus for its investment in the region at a Thursday morning gathering.
“This is truly a great day,” she said.
Sanguen’s outreach manager Violet Umanetz shared with the gathering at RIM Park in
Waterloo the comments of a local resident who relied on the community van, saying it saved his life by providing naloxone, food and warm clothing through his winters living outside. She explained those who come to the van are often facing complex challenges including homelessness, addiction and mental illness, and health care is not always a priority.
“When life is a constant struggle, it’s really easy to overlook a nagging cough,” Umanetz said.
Jill Schnarr, vice-president of corporate citizenship for Telus, said it looks for partners like Sanguen that are already providing great care in a community.
“They have the expertise to provide the medical care and then we provide the technology,” Schnarr said.
Waterloo Region will be the sixth to get a mobile clinic, and there will be 10 by the end of the year to support more than 20,000 people annually.
Steingart said Sanguen realized quickly that providing hepatitis C care would require getting out into the community, leading to the outreach van hitting the streets in late 2015. “We always had out eye on being able to do more.”
The mobile health clinic is the next big step in helping anybody who needs it.
“It’s really something. It’s going to have an immediate impact.”