Sharbot Lake Family Health Team Public Meeting

Jeff Green | May 24, 2023

About 50 patients of the Sharbot Lake Family Health Team (SLFHT) attended a meeting on May 10th to hear about a proposed amalgamation between the SLFHT and the Tay River Health Centre, a facility located in the Town of Perth that opened two years ago.

The Tay River Health Centre is made up of nine doctors, who all work part-time at the health centre, and part-time as staff physicians, either at the Great War Memorial hospital in Perth or Smiths Falls, or at long term care facilities.

The Family Health Team designation, if granted, will expand the scope of the Tay River Centre to include a range of programs that are not included in a regular family practice but are available to Family Health Teams. These include healthy lifestyle programs, chronic disease and diabetes programs and preventative care.

The application would also create a new Family Health Organisation (FHO) for the practitioners at the two clinics. The FHO is a funding model that pays doctors for the number of patients they have registered in a patient roster, instead of paying a fee for every individual service they provide.

The SLFHT is currently part of the Rural Kingston FHO, along with the Verona, Sydenham, Tamworth and Newburgh medical centres.

Deborah Krause, the Executive Director of the SLFHT, said that the implications of the proposed FHT and FHO designations are minimal for patients of the Sharbot Lake Clinic, a position that was underlined by SLFHT Board members Frances Smith and Susan Irwin.

The only direct implication of the changes to Sharbot Lake patients would be that their patient records would be shared with the Tay River doctors.

“Since the Tay River Doctors work at the Perth hospital as well as in the clinic, this could be a benefit for Sharbot Lake patients who go to the emergency department of the hospital, as their patients' records will now be there,” said Krause.

Dr. Taylor Ferrier, the Medical Director of the Tay River Health Centre, attended the meeting.

He said that “the last thing that our clinic wants to see happen is for services in Sharbot Lake to be diminished in any way. That’s not what this is all about. It is not about changing staffing in Sharbot Lake in any way. It is about collaborating and improving service in both communities. The medical records piece is a good example of how the change will bring benefits, if the ministry approves our application.”

Dr. Peter Bell, who started the practice in Sharbot Lake in 1971, that became the Family Health Team, expressed confidence that whatever happens with this proposal, Ministry of Health Officials are not likely to diminish the level of service offered to Sharbot Lake residents.

“Over the years, we have done very well securing service for Sharbot Lake residents, more than what a community of its size could normally expect. The ministry understands the distances people would have to travel otherwise, and have always been receptive. I don’t see that changing.”

The application for new Family Health Team and Family Health Organisation status was sent in as a response to calls for proposals from the Ministry.

“We don’t know if it will be accepted in this current round, but even if it isn’t, we will apply again when the next call for proposals comes in,” said Deborah Krause. “We will keep trying until we get it done.”