KAWARTHA LAKES-Council voted to acquire title to and assume operation of the Omemee Medical Centre starting on January 1, 2025. The news comes as we learn the municipality has contributed more than $15 million to local healthcare over the last five years.
Mayor Elmslie and CAO Ron Taylor recently attended a delegation with the Deputy Premier and Minister of Health, Honourable Sylvia Jones at the Association Of Municipalities (AMO) conference. Officials say the discussion focused on further provincial support for primary health care and local health services. Municipalities claim they are forced to “fill the funding gap”, through direct financial donations for capital and operations, financial supports for staffing and facility costs, and/or providing “in-kind” support through low/no cost land and facilities. The City is asking for local tax-support incentives in order to attract and retain health service providers.
Local government contributions include funding for the Ross Memorial Hospital, incentives for family doctor recruitment, Lindsay after hours walk-in clinic, nurse practitioners and the Summit Wellness Centre in Coboconk, totalling over $15 million in five years according to the City. This is separate from the funding the municipality provides for municipal programs such as paramedic services, long-term care, human services and public health.
The group told Sylvia Jones that this level of local funding is unsustainable and she received their request to approve the application from the Kawartha North Family Health Team to support primary care and health services within the new Summit Wellness Centre, an investment of $2.6 million.
In alignment with the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO), the Ontario Medical Association (OMA), and the Eastern Ontario Wardens Caucus (EOWC), Kawartha Lakes urged the Ministry of Health to recognize the physician shortage in Ontario, and particularly rural Ontario, and modernize health care funding to ensure equitable and local access to physician care and health services.
On August 27 council voted to acquire the title to and operation of the Omemee Medical Centre on Wellington Street in Omemee on January 1, 2025. There’s no word on how much this will cost. In August the Omemee Medical Centre board announced it would discontinue management of the facility citing rising costs and a lack of tenants. The 3,000-square-foot facility features six exam rooms, registration and waiting rooms, multiple bathrooms, a kitchenette and lab space.
“The intent is to not to hurt health care in the community in any way possible,” said board chair Veronica Nelson, noting patients will not lose their primary care provider; just where they practice. “But it’s not financially sustainable anymore,” Nelson told council.
In the early 2000’s Omemee Hydro was sold to Hydro One which was mandated as part of the amalgamation of the townships and communities of Victoria County, now known as the City of Kawartha Lakes. The funds from the sale, the Omemee Community Hydro Electric Systems Transfers (CHEST) Fund could only be used for charitable or non-profit initiatives.
At that time, the only family physician in Omemee was retiring. The owners of the former Regal property severed a portion of their land to support the community’s vision of having its own medical centre.
This donated parcel of land became the impetus for building a facility to support the vision. At that time, a Board of Directors was formed to build a medical facility, recruit primary care providers and manage the facility.
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