Peterborough Family Health Team Expands Healthcare With New Clinic For Unattached Patients

Those without a family doctor have a new facility for healthcare as the Peterborough Family Health Team (FHT) has expanded its services with a new clinic that exclusively accepts ‘unattached’ patients at 555 George St. N., announced on Tuesday morning.

Dr. Tehmina Chattha Is one of eight doctors at the Peterborough Family Health Team’s new expanded clinic at 185 King St. Photo by David Tuan bui.

The new clinic space will contain additional exam rooms, allowing it to expand appointments for Peterborough city and county residents who do not have a family doctor in Ontario. Those who do have one are not eligible for care at the clinic.

The expansion allows the King Street location (185 King St.) to operate and support more niche services such as well babies.

The clinic has eight doctors, four nurses and a nurse practitioner who can see up to roughly 50-60 patients daily.

Dr. Tehmina Chattha is one of the doctors at the new clinic. She was a former family practitioner and previously worked in ER in Saskatchewan. Chattha says she looks forward to the challenges and changes with her new role.

“Taking care of unattached patients comes with its own challenges because we don't have all the information available, labs and whatever diagnostic imaging have been done before, you don't have access to them. You don't have access to their health records,” she explained. “So gathering all this information, especially in the initial appointment when you are trying to manage a plan, it becomes a little challenging. However we are trying our best to help them out.”

This clinic offers in-person, same-day or next-day care to those with limited options. First-time patients must book an appointment by calling 705-651-4866. Returning patients can book online.

While this clinic is needed in Peterborough, it is just a stop-gap solution to the always-demanding healthcare in town according to Duff Sprague, Peterborough FHT CEO.

“This isn't comprehensive care so it's not your family doctor here, it's family physician care. You don't have that long-term relationship with physicians,” he explained. “Fortunately is that when doctors come from another area and they work in this clinic, so far we have two who plan to open a full family practice so that's the benefit. 

The clinic is receiving some financial help to make sure it can operate. The Peterborough Ontario Health Team (OHT) has committed to covering the clinic’s rent until Sept. 1. Director of Operations; the Patient Services Supervisor and City’s physician recruiter have donated their personal time to preparation of the space, including painting, deep cleaning, transporting equipment and other necessary setup efforts. Whelan’s Floor donated and installed replacement flooring in part of the clinic and to Rishor Real Estate Inc.gave a 50 per cent rent reduction for the first year.

“Despite a base budget that has not increased in many years, we’ve strategically managed to run the clinic within the existing funding and the access clinic physicians have to bill OHIP for their services,” said Sprague. “We took a coordinated approach to provide essential care to unattached patients. Our PFHT Health Clinic offers a much less expensive and more appropriate alternative to the only other in-person choice in the area – hospital emergency departments.”

The Peterborough FHT Health Clinic says from April 1 last year to early March, they estimate $370,804 in savings due to hospital emergency room diversions. The savings are based on the patient being assessed at the emergency department and do not include any testing procedures or specialist care according to Peterborough FHT. They also mention that cancer screenings conducted at the clinic not only save costs for the system but also open the door to care for the unattached patient.

“I think that primary care has not been funded adequately. It's suffering and that is the key to managing the other healthcare costs,” explained Sprague. “Good strong family medicine, nurse practitioners, primary care teams are going to shorten the wait at emergency departments, going to shorten the volume, going to delay people going into hospital beds, delay people going into long-term care beds but far more expensive parts of the healthcare system, there's going to be reduced use and reduced need.”

Engage with us on social media on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Tiktok, Youtube and LinkedIn. Write to us at tips@ptbocanada.com. Sign up for our newsletter here.