Municipality of Trent Hills residents seeking a primary health care provider locally can now join a patient roster list with the Trent Hills Family Health Team (THFHT).
With a doctor and a nurse practitioner (NP) slated to arrive in the community in 2024, the THFHT is accepting applications from people in Trent Hills and the broader Northumberland County area.
“It is an ongoing process as we build patient roster lists for a new full-time NP starting soon, and a physician joining us later this year,” Delayne Donald, executive director of the THFHT, told kawarthaNOW. “The applications have been coming in at a fairly steady pace.”
Within the next six to eight months, THFHT expects to be opening two new practices at its Campbellford clinic and aims to ensure everyone in the area who needs a primary care provider has filled out an application.
In February, Northumberland-Peterborough South MPP David Piccini announced that expansion funding had been awarded to THFHT to service unattached patients in the area. THFHT is now in the process of hiring a fifth NP who will open a full-time practice at the Trent Hills Medical Clinic, located at 119 Isabella St.
THFHT also applied to Practice Ready Ontario to link with internationally educated physicians and is currently in the process of working through the program with the applicants who have applied to work in Trent Hills. So far, THFHT has recruited one internationally educated physician, with an estimated start date of late 2024.
“We have been in conversations with the physician applicants and our plan is to announce the opening of one additional physician practice shortly,” said medical director Dr. Paul Williams in a media release. “We have yet to determine a firm start date, but we anticipate opening this practice towards the end of 2024.”
Practice Ready Ontario is a provincial program that recognizes the competency of internationally trained physicians who have experience in family medicine or as a general practitioner outside Canada. The program provides a 12-week clinical field assessment in a designated Ontario community.
Successful candidates complete a three-year return of service as a family physician with preceptorship from partner physicians and support from experienced teams.
“We are extremely fortunate to have a robust team and community in Trent Hills,” Williams said. “We have a lot to offer to both physicians and nurse practitioners who might be opening their first practice in Canada or recently graduated from a program.”
NP Samantha Dalby said the THFHT has “an excellent track record of attracting and retaining physician and NP residents.”
“Once people see what a great team and system we have they are very impressed,” Dalby said. “We have many team members who came to THFHT as students or residents 18 or 20 years ago and are still working at THFHT.”
THFHT currently has six physician-led and four nurse practitioner-led practices operating out of clinics in Campbellford, Warkworth, and Hastings. The team also includes registered nurses, registered practical nurses, mental health workers, and administrative professionals. The team currently provides primary health care services to more than 11,400 patients.
Residents who have not yet completed an application to become a patient in a THFHT practice can download an application form from trenthillsfht.ca/patient-application.
Priority will be given to applications that hail from people whose primary residence is in Trent Hills and who don’t have a health care provider (a physician or nurse practitioner) or they have a health care provider located more than 50 kilometres from their home.
Patients with a primary residence in Northumberland County who do not have a health care provider or have a health care provider more than 50 kilometres from their home will be treated as the second priority.
Finally, applications from people residing outside of Northumberland County who don’t have a health care provider or have a health care provider more than 50 km from their home “will absolutely be considered and offered spots if we have them,” the THFHT noted.
