Greater Sudbury Northern Life Reporter Janet Gibson
The Sudbury Nurse Practitioner Clinic, the first of its kind in the province, will soon open a second site in Greater Sudbury. The clinic has a home base at 359 Riverside Dr. and an outreach site in Chapleau.
"We are in discussion with the City of Greater Sudbury about a second site," said nurse practitioner Marilyn Butcher. "There's going to be a decision made very shortly."
The clinic was going to open a second site in Dowling but couldn't arrange a suitable lease agreement, she said, adding she didn't want to trump the city's announcement of the location.
Butcher said when she and nurse practitioner Roberta Heale submitted their proposal to the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care in early 2006, it included three sites.
Recently, the Ministry gave the clinic the go-ahead to hire an RN, social worker, dietitian and pharmacist, all of whom will serve the two Sudbury sites.
The Sudbury clinic currently has close to 2,000 patients - orphans, Butcher called them, who previously had no access to care.
The clinic has been so successful and the feedback from the community so positive, Butcher and Heale plan on "expanding beyond the three," Butcher said. "Obviously, this model works."
