To prepare for two new doctors coming to town, the Wallaceburg Community Medical Centre team is ready to launch a $200,000 fundraising campaign to expand their facility.
Laura Johnson, executive director for the Chatham-Kent Family Health Team, said physician recruitment is one of her primary objectives.
“Since 2006, we’ve recruited 11 family physicians to Chatham-Kent that are not from Ontario,” she said. “One of those new physicians is in Wallaceburg, he started on January 6, we currently have two that we’re just finishing the paper work for to bring here, they will be in the summer. With that, this brings some urgency, because we don’t have the space for them.”
Johnson said additional space is available directly adjacent to their current facility at 30 McNaughton Ave.
“There is an additional 2,000 square feet that is vacant that we can take on,” she said. “We’re just in the midst of amending our lease agreement.”
Johnson said the cost does not just include renovations, but equipment as well.
We need exam beds, diagnostic systems like blood pressure, ears and that sort of thing,” she said.
Kick-off is tonight to inform the public about what is happening and to kick-off the $200,000 fundraising campaign.
Johnson said Elric Contractors will be doing the work, and they need about 60 days to complete it.
“We need to start Monday,” she said. “These doctor’s are going to be here likely by early summer, probably not the first part of May, but probably the end of May.”
When the project is complete, Johnson said “there will be space for four physicians in Wallaceburg.
“One is there, two are just in the final stages of the paper work and there will be additional space for one other physician. When we’re calculating the recruitment effort basically what we have identified between space and equipment and getting them up and getting them started, we’re looking at about $50,000 per physician. That is what we target when we’re bringing a new physician on board.”
Check out our original story here: Wallaceburg Community Medical Centre expanding
