I am one of the medical secretaries at the clinic. I am the first contact, when patients come to the clinic. Many of the patients that have come to register at the clinic have not had any medical care for many years. They cannot find a health care provider and have been using walk-in clinics and the emergency department for their health care. Many have chronic illnesses such as diabetes, high cholesterol, heart disease, etc and do not have any follow-up care from these facilities.

When I call the patient for their intake appointment, they are so grateful and happy. I have had a patient tell me” It is like winning a lottery”. One of the many questions that I am asked by patients, when I call them for their intake appointment, is “Is the appointment an interview to see if I am accepted?” When I explain that they are now a patient at our clinic without being interviewed, they are very surprised. I have been told that they have had interviews at different health care providers and have not been accepted because they are too sick!!!

Working as a medical secretary at the SDNPC has been very rewarding. I love the fact that patients that had no previous health care now have a health care provider looking after all aspects of their health care.

Katherine Judd, Medical Secretary, Sudbury District Nurse Practitioner Clinics 

On behalf of the board members of the Nurse Practitioners’ Association of Ontario (NPAO) I would like to write this blog entry to congratulate the staff and board members of the Sudbury District Nurse Practitioner Clinics for all their hard work and dedication.

As the pioneers of this innovative model of health care that is rooted in providing increased access to high-quality comprehensive care to patients with no regular primary care provider (unattached), you have earned the support of your patients, community members and your professional colleagues. The success of these clinics has also been recognized by the Ontario government with plans for 25 more nurse practitioner led clinics in other communities in the province that are also experiencing a large number of “unattached” patients. 

Despite challenges along the way you have not been distracted from the vision of providing comprehensive, interprofessional care to your patients and their families. The nurse practitioner led model also supports the full integration of Nurse Practitioners working to their full scope of practice at the clinic to ensure accessible, high quality health care for the residents in need within the Sudbury district.

Aaron Medd, RN(EC), BScN, Communications Director-NPAO 

We appreciate all citizens' interest in the improvement of our health care system. We hope the following information will help regarding the situation in the Lively area and the comments made by the physicians in that community. The doctors in that community were in fact working with another group of NPs at the time they submitted their proposal, and we encourage their efforts. It is unfortunate their proposal was declined. Our proposal was declined as well. It is very disheartening to have a proposal turned down. We have been there, we have empathy for them. The patient need was so critical, that we chose to refocus and resubmit and we were happy to have finally received funding to serve orphan patients with our clinic. It is clear that those patients in Lively who attend the Lively Medical Centre are very happy with the care they receive there just as the orphan patients in Lively, Copper Cliff, Naughton and Whitefish are pleased that they too have somewhere to access care now as well.  We encourage all exploration of new initiatives to help orphan patients in our area. The people in the community who have not had access to primary health care will now see their tax dollars working for them to create a state-of-the art, interprofessional health centre.  The Lively NP Clinic site is an investment in the future.

Marilyn Butcher, Clinic Director & Roberta Heale, President of the Board SDNPC

So much has happened since Marilyn Butcher and I were given the opportunity to develop and open Canada's first NP-led Clinic that we often don't have an opportunity to sit back and reflect upon the impact of the Clinic. For that reason, I'm particularly excited about this new Blog site.  We will be posting the thoughts of not only the Clinic Board members and Staff, but also of community members who have been touched in some way by this model of primary health care.  Now...to the interesting part.  I'm thrilled to introduce Gisèle Guénard our first Guest and first Blogger.  

Roberta Heale, President of the Board of Directors, Sudbury District Nurse Practitioner Clinics