Plans for the construction of an 11,000-square-foot health centre on the Palmerston and District Hospital site are now one step closer to reality.
The North Wellington Health Care (NWHC) board has approved a preliminary financing plan for the project, which will be financed through a joint effort of municipal financing, hospital investment and allocated special funding from the hospital’s foundation.
Stephen Street, acting CEO for NWHC, said plans for the project are “in their infancy” so it’s impossible to attach a dollar figure until the project goes to tender.
Street said projections for the size of the building were based on anticipated income from prospective rental tenants.
The new health centre will create some medical office space to aid in the recruitment and accommodation of new physicians, as well as space for health care partners such as the Minto Mapleton Family Health Team and Trellis Mental Health and Community Care Access Centres.
Street said additional working space will be needed as new physicians are recruited to the community.
“We have some physicans planning for retirement in the next few years and we want to be ahead of the recruitment game,” he said. “It takes a number of new physicians to replace a retiring physician at today’s practice standards.”
The new health centre will also help centralize some health care services so patients do not need to travel as far for health care services.
A request for proposal to hire an architect for the health centre is underway.
The architect will design the new health centre as well as the emergency and ambulatory care project at Louise Marshall Hospital in Mount Forest. Both designs are expected later this year.
