‘Helping people get healthy and be healthy’
Lunenburg partners with Lumia Health for major project
The Municipality of the District of Lunenburg (MODL) has announced Osprey Village will be home to Nova Scotia's first Lumia Health Collaborative Health Centre and MODL'S Community Hub.
In a recent press release, the municipality said Lumia Health Collaborative Health Centre and the Community Hub would be situated in Osprey Village at the intersection of Nathan Cirillo Road and Allée Champlain Drive, across from the Stonemont Retirement Lifestyle Community.
Mayor Carolyn Bolivargetson said in an interview the municipality would be the anchor tenant in the two-storey 45,000 square foot building, acting as a community hub using one-third of the available space.
“I think this is a win-win situation for both Partners for Care and the Municipality of the District of Lunenburg. I couldn't be happier with the partnership we currently have. Lunenburg's community hub will be an integral part of the healthy village that Lumia Health will bring,” Bolivargetson said.
“When this council first started two years ago, one of the things the council was looking at was a community hub or a year-round opportunity for a farmers' market,” she said.
Bolivar-geston said, as well as the farmers' market, the hub will house a commercial community kitchen, a café, cold storage for the farmers' market, community meeting and education spaces, office space and a community garden.
Tenants are expected to include a pharmacy and other health-related businesses such as optometry, physiotherapists, oxygen therapy, dietitian services, hearing therapy and more.
“It's very hard to acquire those services in our area.
So, there is a need,” said the mayor.
“It's a very exciting time and it's great to see the progress and the growth that is happening in our municipality and surrounding municipalities,” she said.
According to the news release, Lumia Health is led and delivered by Partners for Care, an independent, board-governed non-profit service partner of Nova Scotia Health (NSH), which collaborates with wellness-oriented businesses that complement NSH'S health-care services and contributes to positive patient experiences.
Jane Davies is the executive director of Partners for Care. During an interview Davies said Partners for Care generates revenue through parking for Nova Scotia Health for the Qell Health Science Centre and running social enterprises, with most of the proceeds going back to support Nova Scotia Health and patient Care.
“But we do retain some of the revenue we generate and we can invest it with Nova Scotia Health's support into opportunities like this,” Davies said.
Davies said the cost of the project is not finalized, but she estimates the project will require a seven-figure investment.
According to Davies,
Lumia Health in Lunenburg will be a genuinely collaborative health-care centre where many health-care providers will work together to support better patient outcomes.
“This is the first of several we want to build across the province to increase healthcare access,” Davies said.
“The magnitude we are going to do (of) collaborative care and the amount of services we are going to offer is not something that's been done in Nova Scotia and not very many places across the country.
“A patient who has health issues or a patient who wants to stay healthy cannot have the best possible treatment if they are being siloed into one particular specialty. Very often health-care issues are multi-dimensional in their cause and in their cure. And so having folks work together is the best possible way to get to the best possible outcome in the most expedient way,” Davies said.
“All of those things are a perfect fit for a collaborative health-care centre that wants to work on helping people get healthy and be healthy so we couldn't be any more pleased to be partnering with the municipality on this.”
Davies noted the Lumia health centre would not house any physician offices.
“There are a lot of things we can do inside this ecosystem with all of those healthcare providers that don't necessarily need a doctor to it. With the situation with doctors and the province right now we think adding this kind of access to health care and not being dependant on doctors is something that can really move the province forward,” Davies said.
“If we have a finite resource of doctors in the province we can do things without them and let this be a recruitment tool for doctors,” she said.
Both Davies and Bolivargetson said the most profound impact of Lumia
Health would be enabling wider access to health care by removing barriers for individuals who do not have the financial resources or capacity to invest in their health through the establishment of the Lumia Health Access Program. The program will aim to provide health-care services to as many Nova Scotians as possible who do not have the means to pay for services offered at Lumia Health.
Davies said the program would have two funding streams. The first will be funds raised to support the health-care services at Lumia Health for those who do not have the means. The second will be through the facility's tenant partners, who will be asked to provide some pro bono services.
“We are going to provide as (much) access as we possibly can to as many people as possible to get them healthy and keep them healthy,” Davies said.
Davies said the construction of the project is conditional on securing enough tenant partners.
“I am hoping we can get the tenants secured in the next six months and take about 18 months for construction,” Davies said. “I would love to be operational in 2024,” she said.