The seasonal care clinic at Chatham-Kent’s hospital has seen an uptick in patient visits since opening, which is being partially attributed to fewer residents having a family doctor.
According to officials with the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance (CKHA), the hospital’s seasonal clinic has treated well over 600 patients since opening on December 10, 2024, which is a 10 per cent increase in visits compared to the same time last year. Of those, 30 per cent are pediatric patients.
Those attending the hospital’s emergency department in Chatham for seasonal illnesses and other minor ailments are typically diverted to the clinic for timely treatment.
Caen Suni, CKHA’s vice president of clinical programs and operations, attributed the increase to fewer residents having access to a family care provider.
“We know that the attachment rates for primary care [providers] in Chatham-Kent has continued to decrease, so I think we’d expect to see a correlation as some of the conditions that individuals would otherwise be seeing at their primary care practitioner, they would be going to the seasonal clinic for,” said Suni. “And we know there have been retirements across Chatham-Kent and so I think we can attribute the increase, partially, to that reason.”
CKHA President and CEO Adam Topp said around 50 per cent of the patients who utilize the clinic have a family physician.
“That is a concern. The clinic is there for people who want to receive immediate care for a variety of things. Ideally, they would go for non-emergent matters to their physicians,” he said. “For a variety of reasons, [some] people don’t do that.”
However, hospital officials noted that the overall number of patients attending the clinic who are attached to a family practitioner is 10 per cent lower than this time last year.
Hospital officials are encouraging everyone with a family doctor to seek care from their primary care provider first, before attending the hospital.
The seasonal care clinic is scheduled to remain open until mid-March, however, an exact closure date has not yet been determined.
Suni said it will depend on the rate of utilization at that time.
“We revisit it on a weekly basis,” he said.
