GUELPH/ERAMOSA – Guelph/Eramosa Council has agreed to set some township funding aside to attract new family doctors to practice in Rockwood.

During a meeting Tuesday, council approved up to $60,000 be used as a top-up for the salaries for two potential new family doctors for the East Wellington Family Health Team.

A long-awaited nurse practitioner has finally been hired and is expected to begin looking after Niagara-on-the-Lake residents April 8.

Note: Following the approval of new governance terminology at our December 2023 Board of Directors (formerly Council) meeting, the CPSO Council Award is now known as the CPSO Board Award

The International Women’s day Gala in Belleville at The Grand featured a keynote speech by guest speaker Karen Clayton-Babb, Chief Nurse Practitioner and Clinic Director at the Belleville Nurse Practitioner-Led Clinic.

For years,  Cyril Lee Turley and others have been calling on the government to give power to registered nurses to prescribe medication as a way to alleviate the strain on hospitals and community clinics.

As the number of people without a family physician in Ontario continues to climb, the province announced earlier this month it will spend $110 million to connect more than 300,000 people to primary care teams.

Elgin County will receive nearly $1 million from the provincial government to expand team-based health care in the region.

On Friday, officials with the Thames Valley Family Health Team, alongside Elgin-Middlesex-London MPP Rob Flack, announced the funding, calling its impact “transformative.”