An additional 800 unrostered patients will now have primary care in the Kingsville area.
The Essex County Nurse Practitioner Led Clinic in Kingsville announced on Thursday, October 16 that they will be taking on another 800 patients very soon, in addition to the 1,200 patients originally rostered in May of 2024.
Anthony Leardi, MPP for Essex, was on hand to make the announcement on behalf of the Ontario government. The funding for the project is supplied from an ongoing stream through the Ontario Health Team.
According to Laura Levesque, Executive Director of the Essex County Nurse Practitioner Led Clinic, another Nurse Practitioner has already started at the clinic and the 800 additional patients will be taken on in the coming weeks.
The announcement follows the news earlier last week that Erie Shores HealthCare in Leamington had reached an agreement to discharge patients to the clinic who have no primary care practitioner. Those patients would be put on the roster of the clinic.
“We know that primary care is very important to everybody,” said Leardi. “Last year I was very happy to announce that this location was going to add 1,200 people to their roster. Now we can announce that another 800 people can be added.”
“Nurse Practitioner Led Clinics are part of the solution,” said Levesque. “We provide the full gamut of primary health care,” she said. “Preventative care, screening diagnosis, dieticians, social workers. Patients have access to our entire team here.”
“There was a huge need in this area,” she added. “We have an additional wait list, so now we’re able to take on our additional wait list. Very soon, we’ll start rostering again.”
Leardi added that about 10 per cent of people in Ontario are still in need of primary care.
“Our eventual goal is to see that everyone in Ontario gets connected to primary care,” he said.
