New community health centre opens in Alberton, P.E.I.

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ALBERTON, P.E.I. — Receiving well being care in western P.E.I. will quickly look a bit completely different, courtesy of the brand new Alberton Group Well being Centre on Church Road.
On Oct. 10, the ability held its grand opening, and Dr. Pamela Hudson was keen to start out seeing her first sufferers within the area later that day.
“It’s actually thrilling,” mentioned Hudson. “It’s thrilling to have seen loads of the well being employees which might be gonna be working right here have been concerned in planning for the constructing, so it’s thrilling to see that it’s lastly right here.”
Hudson has labored as a household physician in Alberton for the final 4 and a half years. Within the new well being centre, she might be holding household drugs clinics and addictions clinics; she will even nonetheless do inpatient care at Western Hospital.
First introduced in early October 2021, the brand new $7.6 million centre is not going to exchange the present Western Hospital. As a substitute, the hope is for each services to enhance one another’s companies.

On the well being centre, physicians and nurse practitioners will have the ability to collaborate and work in shut proximity, offering companies resembling major care, public well being clinics and psychological well being and dependancy assist.
The centre, which continues to be recruiting to satisfy its full complement of employees, has area for a complete of six nurse practitioners and physicians. As of the grand opening, Hudson was certainly one of three physicians at present understanding of the area, alongside a nurse practitioner.

She, alongside Well being Minister Mark McLane, hopes the brand new centre will encourage recruitment and assist with retention.
“Entry to all of the well being care companies in a single constructing is an enormous plus. A contemporary facility, vibrant lights, you may see the hallways are bigger, we’ll have all the most recent gear they want,” mentioned McLane.
“It is a back-to-back collaborative care mannequin. I feel the interplay with well being centre professions in a single constructing is essential.”

The brand new area is “phenomenal,” mentioned Mayor Brian Poirier, including that he hopes it is going to assist ease some stress on Western Hospital.
“I’m actually excited for the neighborhood,” mentioned Poirier. “Greater than the rest, our seniors, the folks that can go to right here, what they provide right here, I’m actually actually excited for Alberton and the encompassing neighborhood.”

Eva Rodgerson and Dave Pizio, chairs of the O’Leary Group Well being Basis and Western Hospital Basis, respectively, attended the grand opening and have been impressed with what they noticed.
“It is a fantastic, fantastic step ahead, and it’s going to satisfy a necessity, a requirement that’s lengthy overdue,” mentioned Pizio. “It’s gonna present a service and enhance the flexibility to take care of the folks, health-wise, in western P.E.I.”

Rodgerson voiced related sentiments, emphasizing the collaboration between employees in all areas of care.
“I feel there’s been loads of instances, an excessive amount of isolation, not all the time deliberately,” she mentioned. “To have all well being professionals have the ability to come collectively below one roof, I simply assume it’s large.”
Kristin Gardiner is a reporter with SaltWire in Prince Edward Island. She will be reached by electronic mail at [email protected] and adopted on X @KristinGardiner.