Clinic to close

Citing insufficient patient volume, physician moves to Wellington

The Prince Edward Family Health Team (PEFHT) will close the Rossmore Upper County Clinic at the end of October. After five years, patient volumes have not materialized to justify continuing to keep the office open.

In November, Dr. Gord Holton will be relocating to Sandbanks Medical Clinic in Wellington.

When the Rossmore Clinic opened, PEFHT had hoped to attract as many as three physicians to the facility.

“Family physicians increasingly recognize the benefit to patient care when physicians and allied health providers practice in an integrated team environment,” says Stephanie McLaren, executive director of PEFHT. “ This is true both in terms of access and improved health outcomes. The patients of the PEFHT have access to a robust team of allied health professionals—nurses, nurse practitioners, dietitians, mental health counsellors, etc—who work to provide an array of specialty services and chronic disease prevention and management programs.”

An integrated clinic also enables physicians to relieve each other, allowing the flexibility required to cover the emergency room and look after their patients when they are admitted to hospital.

But too few patients have been using the facility.

“After years of recruiting patients who were willing to travel to Rossmore for medical services,” says Dr. Holton, “the patient volume was still not enough to be able to split my practice with another doctor, never mind a third physician as well.”

MacLaren says it was a tough decision—but the right one.

“Given the low volume of patients being seen at the Rossmore location, it was becoming financially irresponsible to continue to support the location,” says MacLaren. “Our goal is to offer one-stop collaborative care with multiple members of the PEFHT team. We simply could never offer that in Rossmore. Patients will have increased access to the full range of healthcare providers at the Wellington location.”