FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Contact Person: Marilyn Butcher
Company Name: Sudbury District Nurse Practitioner Clinics
Phone Number: 705 671 1661
Website http:// sdnpc.ca
North East LHIN Applauds Nurse Practitioner-Led Clinics as Part of ALC ED Chronic Disease Management Solution
Sudbury, Ontario, February 25 2009: Gisèle Guénard, Vice-Chair of the North East Local Health Integration Network was the keynote speaker at the Sudbury District Nurse Practitioner Clinics’ Annual General Meeting, held in the boardroom of the North East CCAC. Guénard quoted Premier Dalton McGuinty, who, when announcing the roll out of the NP initiative last week, said “I have been to Sudbury, and I have seen the future at the Sudbury District Nurse Practitioner Clinic.” “And,” he said, “the future is here.”
“The North East local health integration network’s mandate is to plan, integrate and fund two thirds of the health care system, within the communities stretching from Parry sound to the James and Hudson Bay Coast.”, Guénard said. “Primary care, such as Family Health Teams and Nurse-Practitioner Clinics, is funded directly by the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care. Many people in the communities we serve do not have access to regular primary health care. However, LHINs work with those organizations so that together, we can help meet the growing needs within our communities and help transform our health care system, at one of the most challenging crossroads of modern times.”
Representatives from the hospital and community health care sector, aboriginal health agencies, public health, the local ALC Steering Committee, and others were in attendance, with many staying to network after the meeting.
“A large number of new initiatives have been launched,” said Guénard, “like aging at home,” “Some of them are province-wide initiatives, like wait times in Emergency Departments. Minister Caplan, our Minister of Health and Long Term Care, is providing leadership and focus on the issue of wait times in “Emergency Departments” and the relation of those issues to Alternate Level of Care and Chronic Disease Management. Nurse Practitioner-Led Clinics are part of the solution to these complex issues.” Guénard said
Guénard spoke of the Sudbury District Nurse Practitioner Clinic’s model for access to care - serving patients currently without a primary care provider. “They had a vision – and stayed focused on that vision. They innovated – they struggled through start-up and now, the initiative is growing across the province, with Premier Dalton McGuinty having now announced that 25 are slated to open by 2012.” she said
The next 3 approved to open their doors are: In the NELHIN, Sault St Marie. In the North West LHIN, Thunder Bay. In the Erie St Clair LHIN, Belle River is next. Guénard ended on a congratulatory note: “On behalf of the Board of the North East Local Health Integration Network, I commend the team of the Sudbury District Nurse Practitioner Clinics for this successful year of care giving, for making health care history, and for the leadership they are providing at a time in our history, when leadership is what we need most of all.
For more information about the Sudbury District Nurse Practitioner Clinics and their services see http://sdnpc.ca .
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