New health clinic opens in Niagara-on-the-Lake

Niagara on the Lake (NOTL) residents who are seeking primary care but don’t have a family doctor of their own are in luck.

On Monday, a new medical clinic opened inside the Village Medical Centre at 101 Garrison Village Drive.

“We have over 19,000 people that live here and over two million visitors a year that come and visit us so to not have this kind of service it could be really risky,” said mayor Gary Zalepa.

The new clinic is targeted at the 8,000 residents who are currently not registered with a healthcare practitioner in the region.

But the clinic doesn’t answer all of the town’s health care issues.

“It doesn’t fix the health care problem in Niagara-on-the-Lake. We do have some more challenges,” said Niagara Falls MPP Wayne Gates.

The town’s hospital was shut down in 2015, with the closest emergency room in St. Catharines or Niagara Falls.

The new NOTL Health Care Clinic will operate between Monday and Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

During the morning, it will operate on an appointment-only basis.

During the afternoon, the clinic will serve walk-in patients.

MPP Wayne Gates says the aging population could eventually lead to a change in thinking for health care in Niagara.

“They’re saying we built this great province. We deserve to have the health care where we need it when we need it. The more we talk about it the more pressure put on the government and particularly Niagara Health for some of the decisions being made these days that are wrong-headed.”

Anyone who is registered with the Niagara North Family Health Team (NNFHT), the regions healthcare network, cannot visit this facility.

The facility will be staffed by a nurse practitioner who will be able to provide ongoing chronic, preventative and urgent care needs, such as:

• order and interpret diagnostic tests;
• prescribe all medications;
• perform medical procedures.

This new facility is one of two healthcare locations in the region.

To book an appointment, visit the NNFHT website or call 289-272-0441.