Ontario injects $910K into expanding Sarnia, Wyoming health clinics
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Wyoming and Sarnia clinics offering residents an alternative to emergency room care will share $910,000 from the province to expand.
The one-time funding, announced Friday by Sarnia-Lambton Tory MPP Bob Bailey, is part of a $110-million provincial effort to connect more people to primary health care, including more than 10,000 in the Sarnia area without family doctors.
The new funding will be shared by:
- Central Lambton Family Health Team, which runs a nurse practitioner-led clinic at the Plympton-Wyoming Health and Wellness Centre, a municipally provided facility in a former Wyoming bank.
- Rapids Family Health Centre, which runs an access-to-care program in Sarnia at a medical building at 581 London Rd.
The Wyoming site has been seeing individuals with conditions such as ear infections, minor gastric upsets and respiratory infections, said Ralph Ganter, the Central Lambton team’s executive director.
It runs about four hours a day, four days a week, “but we want to ramp that up to at least six hours of actively seeing patients, at least four days per week,” and possibly five or six days a week, Ganter said.
Information on expanded hours is expected to be available in coming months at centrallambtonfamilyhealthteam.com.
About 175 to 180 patients a month visit the Wyoming site, but it’s hoped the expansion can increase that to 350 to 400 a month, Ganter said.
“Part of the mandate is to help hospitals and prevent emergency department visits,” he said.
The funding will allow the Sarnia site to increase staff and patient access, said Lynn Laidler, executive director of the Rapids Family Health Team.
“We’ve been running on hopes and prayers (of) finding funding to continue,” she said.
It began in 2018 and runs Monday to Saturday, Laidler said. The funding is expected to allow the service to also expand, she said.
Information on the Sarnia service can be found at rapidsfhteam.ca.
Lonny Napper, a former Plympton-Wyoming mayor who championed the health and wellness centre, attended Friday’s announcement.
“I like what’s happening,” he said. “It’s getting used.”
“We are thrilled to receive this crucial funding in support of the access to care centres in Sarnia-Lambton,” Nadine Neve, executive lead of the Sarnia-Lambton Ontario Health Team, said in a release.
“Increasing capacity and access to health services is vital for our growing community, particularly for those who do not have a primary care provider.”
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