Northern Ontario’s first Complex Care Satellite Clinic for kids has opened in Timmins.
This is a clinic that links Northern Ontario kids with complex needs and their doctors at the Cochrane Temiskaming Children’s Treatment Centre with medical experts at Ottawa’s Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario. Nurse Practitioner at CHEO Karen Morris says this clinic gives Northern Ontario families immediate access to information and medical advice.
Morris says all parties will video conference regularly so all the doctors and family know what is going on with a patients care at all times. Timmins Pediatrician Willen Verbeek says the families won’t have to travel as much, which is better for the patients health as well as the families finances.
Verbeek says this clinic is only possible because of the callaboration of partners including:
-Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario – Ottawa Children’s Treatment Centre (CHEO – OCTC)
-Cochrane Temiskaming Children’s Treatment Centre (CTCTC)
-North East LHIN
-pediatricians from Timmins
-Provincial Council for Maternal and Child Health (PCMCH)
-Timmins and District Hospital
A Timmins family is already using the satellite clinic to help their 2-year-old daughter Lydia, who has a rare condition that makes it impossible for her to lift her head and limbs. The girl’s father Tyler Allard says it takes the family one month to prepare for the trip to Ottawa. He says only having to make the trip twice a year, rather than every three months, is a huge stress reliever.
CTCTC says children with medical complexity and fragility in Canada account for less than one per cent of the pediatric population, and use about one-third of pediatric health resources, and account for 10 per cent of hospital admissions
