The province is providing more than $600.00 so that two of the city's family
health teams can hire nurse practitioners, said Health Minister George
Smitherman.
The money will go to the Office of Primary Care, the governing body of
five family health teams, said Smitherman during yesterday's press conference
at the Peterborough Clinic. It covers the cost of hiring six nurse practitioners,
five full-time and one part-time.
"We'll have no trouble finding spots for six nurse practitioners.
As time goes by, we think we'll need more than that in this community,"
said Dr. Don Harterre, who is heading up the family health team initiative.
• Peterborough Medical Centre Family Health Team. (**JonokeMed™ Clinic)
• Chemong Medical Centre Family Health Team, located in Bridgenorth and Lakefield.
• Peterborough Clinic Family Health Team. (**JonokeMed™ Clinic)
• Peterborough Palliative Plus Family Health Team.
• VON Havelock-Belmont-Methuen Family Health Team located in Havelock.
"At present time the Peterborough Clinic and the Chemong
Medical Group are best prepared from an administrative point of view
to start
working alongside nurse practitioners," Harterre said. He
said the other three teams started getting organized later, so they
still have administrative details to iron out before taking on allied
health professionals.
The Peterborough Clinic will take three nurse practitioners, including
Connie Brown from the Peterborough Nurse Practitioner Clinic and Elizabeth
Broomfield from the pediatric clinic.
"We will have sufficient money to, in effect, hire those nurse practitioners so that they can continue doing their work," Harterre said.
"The plan is not to see any bridge in the service that they are currently providing so that it will be a seamless transition," he said.
The other 2 1/2 positions will go to the Chemong Medical Centre.
Family health teams are groups of doctors working together with other health professionals such as nurse practitioners, dieticians and pharmacists.
The goal is to free up time for physicians and allow them to take on more patients.
"As soon as the nurse practitioners are there . . . the physicians will be in a position to take on new patients," Harterre said. "We're hard-pressed to say exactly when that will happen."
He said the nurse practitioners will "probably be up and running within a month or so."
Smitherman said the family health team initiative and construction of the new hospital demonstrate that the province is recognizing this area's health care needs.
"We are going to be celebrating discernible, tangible progress in the Peterborough community," Smitherman said.
- taken from the Peterborough Examiner October 1, 2005