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The Sault Star published an article  Jun 27, 2023

By Rocco Frangione

The healthcare professionals who work at the Burk’s Falls Family Health Team are enjoying a much needed facelift to the health centre.

The employees are now working in a renovated facility which included repurposing the former emergency reception into office space.

Christine Barr is the Administrative Assistant for the Village of Burk’s Falls who also coordinates the health centre’s administration.

Barr said one of the significant improvements includes how the Ontario Telemedicine Network (OTN) can now operate at the facility.

“The OTN used to be in a small room and they regularly dealt with people with mobility challenges, like people with walkers,” Barr said. “So you’d have the nurse, the patient and a walker in a tiny area.  But the bigger space has really improved matters”.

The medical centre is a two storey building and some medical-related work was carried out on the second floor.

Burk’s Falls Mayor Chris Hope says with the existing space now being put to better use, the second floor can be renovated in the future which includes green initiatives like retrofitting the windows and a new heating system.

Rod Ward, who is Mayor of Armour Township and also chairs the Almaguin Highlands Health Council, says the 10 member communities of the health council helped pay for the renovations with a combined contribution of $78,548.

The health centre houses 12 healthcare professionals and administrative staff.

Ward says there are six physicians, a nurse practitioner, two nurses plus administration personnel.

He adds apart from this there is also a mental health counsellor and an OTN nurse.

Burk’s Falls Mayor Chris Hope says the centre “goes into areas that are under-served” a function he says that is carried out by the mental health counsellor.

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Owen Sound’s The Sun Times published an article  June 15, 2023

By Scott Dunn

COVID-19 may be in the rear-view mirror for many, but nurse practitioner Michelle Lanteigne deals with people infected with the lingering pandemic virus every day.

She runs an acute-care clinic for people with active COVID-19 and one for long COVID patients at the Owen Sound Family Health Team offices on 1st Avenue West. The clinic is only available to health team patients.

“While no one wants to talk about it, COVID’s still here,” Lanteigne said in an interview. “I think there’s also a lot of people out there that don’t know why they’re not feeling like themselves again.”

There’s been no lack of demand for services of the long-COVID clinic either, she said. As of this week, 26 patients had been discharged and 36 patients are actively in the program, which began in April 2022.

“A lot of the people who come to our clinic feel that they’re very alone. That whether it’s colleagues at work or friends, (they) just don’t understand why they’re not getting better,” Lanteigne said.

“Although we don’t know everything about this condition, we have a lot of strategies that we can use to help you feel better.”

With no universally accepted definition of long COVID and no test for it, a diagnosis is symptom-based. Lanteigne adopted the National Health Service England’s long COVID definition: having COVID-19 symptoms from four to 12 weeks and then signs and symptoms develop during or after COVID lasting more than 12 weeks.

She sees people who mostly report profound fatigue or a cough but then she finds they have other long COVID symptoms they hadn’t thought were related. There are more than 200 related symptoms reported in medical literature, she said.

Lanteigne said that at the long COVID clinic, which she runs with an occupational therapist and respiratory therapist, “we believe you when you tell us you’re having these symptoms.”

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Northumberlandnews published an article  June 15, 2023

By Natalie Hamilton

With a proposal underway to bring more nurse practitioners to Brighton, mayor Brian Ostrander says he’s happy to support what’s ultimately better access to local health-care services for Brightonians.

The Lakeview Family Health Team (FHT), which is based out of the Brighton Health Services Centre at 170 Main St., is submitting a request to the provincial government proposes a nurse practitioner primary care model with the addition of three full-time nurse practitioners to the roster at the Brighton clinic.

If the province approves the plan, more than 3,000 patients could gain access to a nurse practitioner as their “most responsible provider,” the FHT said.

The nurse practitioners would occupy two pods that are currently vacant on the upper level of the health centre that is comprised of family physicians, one nurse practitioner and other health care professionals.

“Given that the municipality invested in the health centre in order to ensure that space was available for primary care practitioners to see patients, we are pleased to see a plan from the team that would see more than 3,000 patients rostered in Brighton through a nurse practitioner-led clinic,” Ostrander told the Brighton Independent.

The Municipality of Brighton council recently heard from Wendy Parker, executive director of the Lakeview FHT, about the proposal.

“The family health team is proposing a nurse practitioner primary care model with the addition of three full-time nurse practitioners to (complement) the one full-time nurse practitioner practising in Brighton since 2008,” Parker noted in her correspondence to council.

“Approximately, 3,400 patients would be attached to a nurse practitioner as the (MRP).”

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