Ottawa Valley Family Health Team helps solve high demand for primary care by developing Carleton Place Regional Health Hub
The expansion will improve Carleton Place and Beckwith residents’ access to family physicians, disease management and prevention programs, and support physician recruitment.
March 2, 2023 – The Ottawa Valley Family Health Team (OVFHT) has received Ministry of Health approval and provincial and municipal funding to enhance primary care in the region by expanding its Mississippi Mills catchment to include Carleton Place and Beckwith. The OVFHT has partnered with M+H Properties Group to develop the Carleton Place Regional Health Hub by fall 2024 to support the expansion plan.
Five family physician clinics currently support Carleton Place and Beckwith residents; however, paGents cannot access family health team interdisciplinary services. The new Carleton Place Regional Health Hub will bring the 14 local family physicians under one roof and offer Beckwith and Carleton Place residents access to OVFHT’s specialized programming (e.g., COPD and Asthma Program, Memory Clinic, Adolescent and Child Mental Health Program) and other inter-professional healthcare services (e.g., pharmacy).
John Jordan, MPP, Lanark-Frontenac-Kingston, said: “Generous provincial funding has enabled the Ottawa Valley Family Health Team to expand their interdisciplinary team to provide services to the residents of Mississippi Mills, Carleton Place, Beckwith, and beyond. The presence of a strong interdisciplinary team will greatly assist local physicians to meet their demanding service levels, and it will enhance the recruitment of new physicians to this rapidly growing community.”
The OVFHT expansion is supported by approximately $1.2 million in new annual funding from the provincial government to support primary care expansion; and a combined $1.7 million in funding over ten years from the Township of Beckwith and the Town of Carleton Place.
“Under the leadership of Premier Ford, the Ontario government is delivering on our promise to provide more convenient and connected care, closer to home,” said Sylvia Jones, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health. “With this investment, I look forward to seeing how the Ottawa Valley Family Health Team is able to provide care to more Ontarians in their region through the new clinic in Carleton Place.”
Toby Randell, Mayor, Town of Carleton Place, shared: “Council recognizes the benefit of investing in the future healthcare needs of our residents to ensure that we have the opportunity to attract both doctors and ancillary healthcare amenities not currently available locally. We were proud to collaborate with OVFHT, M+H Properties Group, and a large group of local doctors willing to make significant investments in our community to ensure the long-term health care of our residents. Council is looking forward to the day when our collaborative efforts, hard work, and dedication with these partners over the past 18 months see the creation of the Carleton Place Regional Health Hub, which will provide a solid foundation of health care in our region for all our citizens in the future.”
“I would like to take this opportunity to thank Peter Hamer, Executive Director of the OVFHT, for all his hard work and dedication in expanding the family health team to Beckwith and Carleton Place,” said Richard Kidd, Reeve, Township of Beckwith. “This service will improve our residents’ ability to navigate the health system. I would also like to thank John Jordan for his help in securing the funds provincially. ”
The OVFHT currently supports the Mississippi Mills community of nearly 15,000 residents, and this expansion will grow its catchment to more than 36,000 residents.
“There has been a long-standing primary care inequity in this region,” said Peter Hamer, Executive Director, OVFHT. “We are pleased to have the approval and funding to meet the pressing need for additional, enhanced primary care services in Carleton Place and Beckwith. I am excited to work with the local physicians to build team-based care that will transform health care in this community by attracting new physicians, reducing unnecessary pressure on the hospital system, and improving overall health outcomes.”
The Ontario Ministry of Finance projects that Lanark County (including Mississippi Mills, Carleton Place, and Beckwith) will grow by 31.7% between 2020 and 2046. Specifically, the recent Ministry of Finance report projects that Lanark County residents aged 65+ will increase by 72% between 2020 and 2046, adding pressure to local healthcare services.
Karen Simpson, Beckwith community member and Executive Director of the Arnprior and District Family Health Team, shared: “Beckwith and Carleton Place residents have missed out on access to interdisciplinary team services available through a family health team. Under Peter Hamer and the Ottawa Valley FHT’s leadership, we can now make this vision of team-based care a reality for our community that will have the added benefit of improving our ability to attract and retain family physicians.”
Dr. Émilie Meyers, one of the project’s physician leads, said: “As a new physician, I struggled with the decision to come to Carleton Place because I was concerned about running my own practice. Ultimately, I am grateful I joined an excellent community of doctors, allied health professionals, and patients.
However, primary care has been under immense pressure province wide. The new Carleton Place Regional Health Hub will be a great way to provide centralized, enhanced primary care services beyond simply visiting your family doctor—and it is the best way for the Carleton Place medical community to keep pace with the town’s growth.”
This expansion brings together three family health organizations (Beckwith, Carleton Place, and Almonte), who, along with the OVFHT, have established effective collaboration as Ottawa West Four Rivers Ontario Health Team (OWFR OHT) partners.
“Primary care plays a valuable and critical role in OHTs, and we are proud to work with primary care partners looking for opportunities to improve patient access to connected care in their local communities,” said Chris LeBouthillier, Co-Chair, OWFR OHT, and Co-Lead of the OHT’s Primary Care Engagement Committee. “We are hopeful that with collaborative initiatives like this, we can continue to strengthen local primary care participation and leadership in the OWFR OHT to improve patients’ and providers’ experiences within our healthcare and community support systems.”
The Carleton Place Regional Health Hub will be built on Costello Drive in Carleton Place and offer approximately 40,000 square feet of space on a 15,000 square feet footprint. Led by M+H Properties Group, construction will begin in fall 2023.
Brad McDonald, Managing Partner at M+H Properties Group, said: “We are pleased and proud to help create this community-transforming opportunity for the Town of Carleton Place and the Township of Beckwith. We have particularly strong ties to the region as two of the three M+H partners reside in the region, and we were impressed to find such dedicated and focused co-creators in this project, including municipal representatives and the leadership of the primary health care provider groups. The region is certainly well served in that respect, and it bodes well for the community that their leaders are responding so actively and thoughoully to the challenges of optimizing their future primary healthcare services. We look forward to supporting those goals with shovels in the ground before the end of 2023!”
The OVFHT does not have a waiting list for the Carleton Place Regional Health Hub or its Almonte location. The team cannot accommodate waiting list requests at this time.
Media contact: Melissa McDermott melissa@melissamcdermott.ca