September 2, 2010 • Issue 763 • $1.00 Serving St. Joseph Island since 1995 “Your Island Newspaper” Visit us online at www.islandclippings.com Tel: 705-246-1635 email:
[email protected] Fax: 705-246-7060 New Developments in Northern Health Care! IT’S BEEN A BIG WEEK for Northern healthcare. Mike reduce demand on hospital emergency departments by Brown, MPP, Algoma-Manitoulin, announced Monday that providing non-emergency care. there will be two new Family Health Teams established, to The addition of 30 new teams is part of Ontario’s commit - serve the Batchewana and Blind River communities. Ontario ment to the creation of 200 Family Health Teams. These is creating 30 new Family Health Teams across the province teams are currently providing care to over 2.3 million Ontar - to provide better access to family health care. ians and serving over 393,000 previously unattached patients. “I am pleased that Algoma-Manitoulin has received two more The province also operates Health Care Connect, a program Family Health Teams, in addition to aimed at helping people find a family doctor or Nurse Practi - those previously approved in Wawa, tioner in their community. According to government Elliot Lake, Chapleau, Manitowaning, statistics, over 900,000 Ontarians have been attached to a Espanola, Mindemoya, Manitouwadge and family doctor since 2003. Government figures also reflect an Little Current,” said Mr. Brown. increase in the number of doctors, citing 2,886 more doctors practicing now, than in 2003. It’s expected that, once all 200 teams are operational, they will provide access to primary care for nearly 2.7 million Ontarians.