'Underserved' Stoney Point, Ont., rallying for a nurse practitioner
CBC
It's been several years since the last doctor practising in the Lakeshore, Ont., community of Stoney Point retired.
Since then, resident Brian Antaya has had to travel to 45 minutes to Amherstburg, Ont., for regular check-ups for his Type 2 diabetes.
He, like many others in the small community, is cheering on efforts to get a nurse practitioner working at a local pharmacy that doubles as a walk-in clinic.
"When you're taking medication and you want to keep up on all the visits and a lot of times you just don't do the visits because well, in my case [my doctor's] in Amherstburg now," Antaya said.
"We need it. We need it in this community. It's just a matter of importance."
The province recently started accepting proposals to expand primary care teams, and it's an opportunity the Lakeshore Nurse-Practitioner Led Clinic (NPLC) and Healthpoint Pharmacy are hoping to seize.
The Lakeshore NPLC has three nurse practitioners on site in Belle River, but the clinic is caring for 2,400 patients and is completely full.
The clinic us applying for four more nurse practitioners, one that would be slated to work on-site at Healthpoint in Stoney Point at Seifin's request, while the other three would join the Lakeshore NPLC.
Healthpoint Pharmacy currently offers a walk-in telehealth clinic.
Pharmacist Mina Seifin said residents need a health-care provider on-site full time.
"I am feeling hopeful because I am [finding] a lot of support, and a lot of need. We are a place we can say, 'it's ready to go,'" Seifin said. He said once a nurse is secured, he or she can start work "tomorrow."
Seifin said about 50 per cent of the population of Stoney Point, Lighthouse Cove and other nearby communities is age 60 or older.
If they can find a family doctor, they're facing at least a 15 minute drive. That can be tough in the winter when snow and darkness complicate the commute.
With the telehealth clinic, internationally trained providers are on site, supervised by an off-site doctor. But once the doctors are licensed in Canada, they leave for larger communities, Seifin said.
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