The North Bay Nurse Practitioner-Led Clinic expansion site in downtown North Bay is just weeks away from opening its doors to the public.
The clinic was made possible after the West Ferris clinic received funding to expand its services to people in the downtown core.
The clinic will receive its first patients at the Main Street location, in the former Leather Trend building on April 8, in what is described as a welcoming and supportive environment.
“We’re looking forward to making an impact on the community for people who need primary care,” said clinic director Jaymie-Lynn Blanchard.
The clinic will be open Monday to Friday during normal business hours.
“The reason why we’re doing that is that we wanted it open at the same time as our community partners so that we’re able to support our patients navigating through the health care system and can help them make those calls to different agencies they might be needing for certain aspects of their health.”
It will be staffed by a number of health care professionals and employees able to provide diversified patient care.
“Because we have a team-based approach to care, we are able to support patients that may have mental health and addictions for example, or they may have some challenges as far as housing and transportation issues. So, we’ll be able to help them work through that,” said Blanchard.
“We will have another three nurse practitioners. We will have a caseworker. We may have a social worker. We will have an RN and RPN who are able to provide a number of different services to clients, as well as a clinical assistant who will be able to provide lab services. They can get their blood work done all in-house which is really great.”
The journey began after the need for additional care was identified.
“It’s 'feel-good' work as far as what we can do to help support our community members. We had to start right from the ground up. The proposal was put in, but we weren’t sure if we would have the funding accepted, and it certainly was. We were granted the funding to expand, and so from there, we started looking for building space. We really wanted to make sure that we put it in an area that was accessible for patients. So, we’re very excited to be in the downtown area where people can access care as well as any other services they may be accessing at the same time.”
The goal is to get patients in as quickly as possible while ensuring they’re getting the quality care they need.
“When we do have a full clinic, we expect to take at least 26-hundred patients in our community, but that may take longer than a year. It depends on the patients that we have that register with our clinic. Because different patients require different types of services, so the level of complexity is always important to keep in mind. Ten brand new babies have a different complexity than patients that have major diseases and illnesses.”
Blanchard says the clinic is an important part of the city's vision moving forward.
“Our new location downtown fits in well with the larger plan for our city's future prosperity as well. A city's downtown is a symbol of the overall economic and social health of businesses and residents alike. So, we’re really excited to be downtown.”