Inside the Chatham-Kent Seasonal Care Clinic. (Photo courtesy of the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance)
Chatham

CKHA Seasonal Clinic attracting the wrong crowd

Leadership at the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance (CKHA) is encouraging those who have a family doctor to leave the Seasonal Care Clinic for those who don't.

The clinic outside of the Emergency Department at the Chatham hospital has seen a 10 per cent increase in traffic over last year since it opened in early December, but half of those who visited the clinic have a family doctor or primary care provider.

CKHA leaders gave the media an update on Monday, saying the 50 per cent of the clinic's visitors attached to a family doctor is lower than last year's 60-plus per cent, but it's still concerning because those patients should be visiting their family physician first.

CKHA Vice President of Clinical Programs and Operations Caen Suni said physician retirements and other factors may have played a role in the data.

"The attachment rate for primary care in Chatham-Kent has continued to decrease. So, I think we'd expect to see a correlation with some of the conditions that individuals would otherwise be seeing at their primary care practitioner, they would be going to the seasonal clinic for," Suni said. "We know there have been (family doctor) retirements across Chatham-Kent. So, I think you can attribute that increase partially for that reason."

The seasonal clinic beside the CKHA Emergency Department in Chatham is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Friday. It operates like a walk-in clinic to help those with mild symptoms such as a cough, rashes, eye infections, and ear aches. People needing prescription refills can also use the clinic.

The clinic operated for four months last winter, helping over 1,500 people. This year, about 600 patients have used the clinic to date. The top brass at CKHA said 30 per cent of the patients at the seasonal clinic so far are pediatric patients or younger patients, about the same as last year.

Suni reminds the public that a BridgeCare clinic offered by the Chatham-Kent Ontario Health Team is open every Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 20 Emma St. in Chatham. The clinic is a primary care access clinic for patients with no family physician or nurse practitioner. The clinic is walk-in only.

CKHA President and CEO Adam Topp also told reporters that there's no change with the measles exposure case that happened at the Chatham hospital Emergency Department last week. Topp said CKHA continues working with CK Public Health to follow up with those who may have been exposed, adding there have been no more reported cases at the hospital since last week.

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