Initiatives Underway to Assist Patients
Work continues to help the thousands of area residents who are unattached to primary care providers.
It’s a top priority for the Nipissing Wellness Ontario Health Team (NWOHT).
“We’re actively working with all of our partners in the Ontario Health Team to develop a long-term and sustainable solution for this very critical issue,” says Jaymie-Lynn Blanchard, practicing nurse practitioner and tri-chair of the health team.
She says some announcements on future initiatives are expected in the coming months.
So far, they’ve been able to provide cervical cancer clinics for those who are unattached, and they’ve partnered with the District of Nipissing Social Services Administration Board to purchase a mobile medical clinic.
“It’s essentially a vehicle that’s going to be able to travel throughout our district to provide care to patients that are unattached,” Blanchard says. “We’ve been doing some really great work together in partnership with a lot of our community partners to address this very critical issue and there’s more initiatives to come that we’re hoping will be able to make a really big impact.”
The latest figure on how many people in our area don’t have a primary care provider is from 2022.
“About 12,750,” Blanchard says. “But we do suspect it’s a little bit higher than that, about 15,000 to 20,000 if we include the people that do have a primary care provider but are unable to get there. Unable to access them in relation to travel issues and transportation barriers.”
Blanchard is also co-chair of our area’s Primary Care Network and the clinic director of the North Bay Nurse Practitioner-led Clinic.
For non-urgent care she says there’s a publicly funded virtual care clinic available to all residents living in Northeast Ontario.
“That’s accessible at www.nevirtualcare.ca,” Blanchard says. “The public can also access healthcare advice by calling Ontario Health 811 to connect with a Registered Nurse, day or night, for free.”
She adds that information is also available, along with other 50 service providers, in the patient navigation tool on the Nipissing Wellness Ontario Health Team website.
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