Province announces funds for family health hub

“The dream about better health care, closer to home, is closer to being a reality,” said Premier Dalton McGuinty at the Thursday, Aug. 13 press conference unveiling the financial boost, along with a conceptual design for the health hub. “It will be the first of its kind in Ontario.”

The money comes in addition to $100,000 already pledged by the province last year for the project’s early-planning stages, and will be put towards cost and volume estimates, site plan evaluations and other preparatory steps, explained Gérald Savoie, Montfort’s president and CEO. “It’s the next step for the family health hub,” he continued, highlighting the facility’s “innovative and integrated” approach to health care. “People will come from every corner of the province to study what we’ve created in Orléans.”

The Orléans family health team – which has already enlisted 14 physicians, with “lots more in the wings,” Savoie added – would potentially oversee an estimated dozen different programs, including Montfort’s day surgery, dialysis, mental health, community care and the Orléans Urgent Care Clinic, at the health hub.

Already, a first-stage model developed alongside team members and consultants has been approved by the province, he recounted, now a required step in developing any major infrastructure initiative within Ontario. “(The money) indicates this project is a priority and will move forward,” Savoie suggested. “It will help us build on work already done.”