Owen Sound is asking the province to support the creation of a new doctor-led nurse practitioner clinic in the city.
Fire Chief Phil Eagleson is involved with local physician recruitment efforts and attended the Rural Ontario Municipal Association (ROMA) Conference in Toronto with other local officials this week to meet with the Ministry of Health.
“We know there is a lot of unattached orphan patients in the Grey Bruce area and what we pitched was a doctor-led nurse practitioner clinic in Owen Sound to serve all of Grey Bruce,” says Eagleson. “So the people that are going to the ER with a basic or minor need, they would come to our clinic.”
In 2023, Eagleson prepared a report that estimated there could be nearly 6,000 people in Owen Sound without a family doctor.
He says people who do not have a family doctor will tend to visit the local emergency department for any injury, putting more strain on the healthcare system.
“For a minor earache of a child, a prescription refill, something that is not emergency care and they go because there is nowhere else for them to turn in the Grey Bruce area. This clinic will allow them to book an appointment or a same day walk in and get those more minor needs seen by a nurse practitioner quickly and take the pressures off the ER, reducing wait times at the hospital, freeing up the ERs for more important priority calls,” says Eagleson.
Mayor Ian Boddy adds, “sometimes rural communities can’t compete dollar-wise with doctor recruitment as the bigger cities. A lot of people don’t necessarily, depending on their ailment, need to see to see the doctor right off the bat, they might be a referral or it might be help that they could get from a nurse practitioner. The idea of putting together a nurse practitioner program under doctor-led, would be great for this region, it would be a chance for the province to try it out, and a way to provide medical and health services for greater Grey Bruce community.”
Eagleson says this proposed service has worked well in other markets in Ontario.
“When we look at where there is staff in small communities or larger communities, they are well-used. They are well-used and are cost effective,” says Eagleson. “When someone goes to the ER, it is a very expensive visit to the healthcare system. When somebody comes to a nurse practitioner in a smaller clinic, it costs far less to the province.”
While the requests presented at ROMA typically do not get an immediate answer from the provincial government, Eagleson says the Ministry of Health has committed to more conversations around the proposed service.
“We hope to hear probably back in the next two months from the ministry and then in mid-summer, late fall, would be amazing if we could put all the pieces together by then,” says Eagleson.