After a decade of work, Melfort’s dream of having the doctors’ clinics under the same roof as the hospital has been realized.
Dr. Ebon Strydom had the honour of cutting the ribbon for the new Wellness Centre Dec. 5.
“This is the culmination of a long period of efforts to try to improve efficiencies and access for patients, to just improve our services in general,” he said.
Over the years, the doctors of Melfort have had to send patients from their clinic to the hospital for diagnostic tests like x-rays and then have them return to the clinic once the test was done.
“This way, we incorporate everything in one facility, where we have the convenience of having access to the diagnostics, as well as the ER,” Strydom said. “It makes a big difference in terms of patient flow and access.”
The doctor said that since he started seeing patients in the new facility Nov. 27, he has gotten great feedback from them about the ease of getting diagnostic tests done. The physicians are also noticing a difference. If they have a patient in the hospital ward, they can now leave the clinic for five minutes, attend to that patient and come back.
“Also, the fact that all physicians are in the same facility helps when discussing things and with communication and just makes it a better experience for everybody.”
Rick Lang, Melfort's mayor, said it’s features like that will reduce stress on the doctors.
“It’s going to make their lives easier and if their lives are easier, the patient’s life is better and that’s what this was all about: getting a better patient experience and getting better medical service delivery.”
The mayor said the new facility is a huge step forward in health delivery services and something that happened because of long-term planning.
A decade ago, Kevin Phillips, then mayor, and Dr. Robert Degelman, who chaired the Melfort Health Advocacy Committee, had a vision for this building. Philips tried to go ahead, but the financial challenges were insurmountable. The same thing was tried during Coun. Doug Terry’s time as mayor and the beginning of Lang’s time as mayor, but the same problem arose.
Meanwhile, around six years ago, Avatex, the developers of Stonegate, wanted to build a doctor’s clinic in their development.
“When we met with the doctors, it was pretty clear that it was very important from their perspective to be close to the hospital,” said John Burton, a senior partner with Avatex. “In the early discussions, we talked about being close, but we never imagined there was an opportunity to be at the hospital and connected to the hospital.”
Two years ago, an opportunity came for Avatex. Jesse Rudge, another partner, was talking to the city, asking about a clinic and he decided to ask how to make a clinic near the hospital possible. The city introduced them to the Kelsey Trail Health Region. In the end, the developer was able to acquire two acres beside the hospital to build the facility.
“It’s going to be a very good asset for Avatex , a great asset to the community and it will enhance healthcare services in Melfort and the surrounding communities,” Burton said.
Lang said the new facility was the result of a new partnership between the city, the health region, Avatex and surrounding municipalities, and it will be an achievement that people will look back fondly at.
The mayor said there’s still work to be done in attracting more medical services to Melfort.
“I think that’s what we’ll be working on next, is to try to make sure we have specialists come into the community where we don’t have those specialists come in right now and I think this building will facilitate that and encourage that,” he said. “This is one step forward out of many, I say, but certainly a giant step.”
