From extending clinic hours to holding cancer screening days, the Peterborough Family Health Team (PFHT) is introducing initiatives aimed at “maximizing care” for Peterborough residents who don’t have a primary care provider.
The PFHT is expanding the services it currently offers through its health clinic, which has locations on King Street in Peterborough and Strickland Street in Lakefield.
The intent of increasing the number of available appointments is to better serve Peterborough residents who don’t have a primary care physician — those who are also known as “unattached patients.”
“We knew action must be taken to support the alarming number of unattached patients in this community,” said PFHT CEO Duff Sprague in a media release. “While we wait for the Ministry of Health to recognize the seriousness of the crisis in family medicine and primary care, we are using our limited resources to operate the PFHT Health Clinic.”
Residents will now be able to book an appointment on the same day they call, or on the following day, according to the PFHT. Unattached patients who have visited the clinic once or more can now request an appointment to renew their prescriptions through the online booking service.
The clinic is also hosting two upcoming screening days in March. On Thursday, March 14 and Thursday, March 21, the PFHT Health Clinic will hold the “Don’t Be Late, Cancer Won’t Wait” cancer screening day for unattached patients who have a cervix and are due for a Pap test.
“These screenings are one of the many functions in family medicine and a reason why it is vital for all Ontarians to have a primary care provider,” the PFHT noted.
Sprague recently told kawarthaNOW “It is becoming increasingly difficult to fill positions in the primary health care sector.”
The CEO said compensation has been frozen for four years, there has been more than 10 years of no new clinical positions, and more than 10 years of no base budget increases.
“The breakdown of family medicine and primary care is the number one reason that hospitals are overrun,” Sprague said.
He hopes the government will “act quickly” and provide more money for primary health care.
The CEO said the clinic’s new measures are “an interim solution.”
“We are committed to the many thousands of area residents and will do all we can to support their access to high-quality, in-person care by a family doctor or nurse practitioner,” Sprague said.
Sprague considers the recent investments in primary health care, including provinical funding for the new Peterborough Community Health Centre, as positive. However, they “do not come close” to ensuring that every Ontario resident has access to family medicine and primary care teams.
“Not only is the number of physicians opening a family practice unable to fill the gaps made by those retiring or leaving a practice but add to that the four-year wage freeze in primary care teams that has fewer and fewer other clinicians choosing primary care,” he said.
“We are very fortunate to have many clinicians who stay in primary care despite the compensation inequities but without action, there will come a time when even the most passionate will leave primary care.”
The types of non-urgent health concerns that can be addressed at the clinic include sore throat or ears, cancer screening, prescription renewals, women’s health and contraceptive counselling, growth and development concerns, new sprains or strains, and chronic disease check-in.
The PFHT Health Clinic is for residents who do not have access to a family doctor. It is not a walk-in clinic — all patients are required to make an appointment. To book an appointment, call 705-651-4866. For details about this clinic or to renew a prescription, visit www.peterboroughfht.com.
