The operator of a nurse practitioner-led clinic in Capreol says clinics like hers can help ease the pressure on the heallth-care system.
Back in January, Amanda Rainville, executive director at the Capreol Nurse Practitioner-Led Clinic (CNPLC), told a pre-budget committee that thousands of patients in Sudbury are in danger of losing their primary health care provider.
Rainville took part in the hearings to request the Ontario government to convince the legislators of the need to increase base operational funding and increase human resources funding to allow the Capreol clinic to compensate staff equitably and expand team-based primary care, both existing and new teams, across Ontario.
Unfortunately, the 2024 Ontario budget did not provide any new funding that would improve staffing salaries in a way that might attract more qualified staff members.
“The money for operations was only for this year and next year. There's no ongoing funding that has been announced. And the cost of everything for clinic supplies has increased,” she said.
Operational funding is welcome, naturally, but the need to hire new health-care staff is particularly pressing, she said, and will only get worse as family doctors retire in the coming years.
Rainvill told the pre-budget committee she was concerned that many primary care physicians across Ontario will be retiring in a few years, leaving huge rosters of patients without a doctor.
Rainville said her clinic has been running at capacity and is no longer able to take in new patients based on the current funding from the Ontario government.
And although some additional operational funding is to be provided to the Capreol clinic, there was nothing new announced in the March 26 budget document that would allow the clinic to hire new health care staff.
Rainville said the need for new nurse practitioners is intense now and more staff would allow the Capreol clinic to offer more in the way of same-day patient care, mental health services and social work, while reducing the wait list. She said this would also help take the pressure off the Emergency Room and hospital admissions at Health Sciences North (HSN).
"Investing in primary care improves patient outcomes and decreases ER visits and hospital admissions," Rainville told the hearings.
"Our hospital is not in a position to care for non-urgent cases. They’ve been operating at above 100-per-cent occupancy for years. We strive to provide same-day access to our patients so that we can reduce the number of emergency visits, reduce the number of crisis intervention visits and reduce walk-in clinic visits.”
She told the committee her Capreol clinic has seen a "huge increase" in new intakes in the past two years.
"There have been two physicians who have closed their practice in the surrounding areas of Valley East and Hanmer and one physician who passed away unexpectedly last year," said Rainville.
"We currently have approximately 600 intake applications. According to the City of Sudbury, 19 per cent of our family physicians will be at an age where they can retire within the next few years. Many older physicians have large patient rosters and this will leave thousands of patients unattached.”
Rainvilled said she was disappointed that no new funding was provided in the March budget to allow new staff to be hired.
“And just this week (April 12), another physician in Sudbury has retired. So we’ve had another influx of patients coming to ask us to take them on,” she added.
Rainville said the Capreol clinic is unique and despite being part of the City of Greater Sudbury, it is located 35 kilometres out from the city centre. Capreol has no local doctors, said Rainville.
"There are no other primary care providers besides the Capreol Nurse Practitioner-Led Clinic. There are no walk-in clinics in Capreol or in surrounding areas. The nearest walk-in clinic is in Sudbury, and there are no other mental health services in Capreol or the surrounding area. Our nearest medical imaging location is in Sudbury," she said.
Rainville told the hearing that transportation is also a significant concern for residents living outside of the built up city centre.
"Transportation is challenging for many of our residents as they do not drive," said Rainville.
"Public transportation is limited to bus and is available but is very difficult for elderly individuals and those with impaired mobility. Bus transportation from Capreol to downtown Sudbury takes just over an hour. This does not include transfer time if a client needs to attend the hospital for urgent care, testing or appointments."
In summary, Rainville told the hearings she was requesting more government investment in team-based care. She said nurse practitioner clinics in general have not received any increase to base funding since the concept began in Ontario in 2007. She added that primary care staff members have not received any increase in personal salaries since April of 2020.
Len Gillis covers health care and mining for Sudbury.com.