The seasonal care clinic opens this week at the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance.
The care trailer, run by CKHA staff and local EMS personnel, is set up outside the emergency department in Chatham.
The clinic is designed to provide timely clinical services to individuals with cough, cold and flu symptoms, and other minor ailments. It’s also for people in Chatham-Kent who do not have a primary care provider such as a family doctor or nurse practitioner, or if you can’t be seen in a timely manner by your provider.
It is also designed to divert people who are suffering signs of cold, flu and other respiratory illnesses from the emergency department.
However, anyone using the clinic will still be required to visit the registration desk in the emergency department and will be seen on a walk-in basis.
Caen Suni, vice-president of clinical programs and operations at CKHA, said the trailer was well received last year.
Last season, the clinic’s first year, it operated from the third week of November 2023 until March 8 of this year.
Suni said nearly 1,600 patients utilized the clinic.
Wait times were generally between 30-45 minutes, much lower than a typical wait time for a person with the same symptoms would generally encounter in the emergency department.
CKHA officials said people can access the clinic if they have cough, cold and flu symptoms; a urinary tract infection; ear ache; rash; a need for a prescription refill; an eye infection; or a general minor complaint.
They encourage those with a family doctor of nurse practitioner to contact them initially and to seek advice. Such advice could include self care at home, making an appointment with your primary-care provider, or heading to the seasonal clinic.
If you opt for self-care at home, visit the clinic if your symptoms are getting worse or not improving.
The clinic will be open Monday to Friday from Dec. 10 into March of next year, Suni said, with hours of 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Suni said CKHA officials are bracing for the annual January rise in flu and other respiratory illnesses, including Covid.
“We expect an uptick in seasonal illness in just about every (age) group starting in January,” he said. “Post holidays. It’s normal.”
To help better manage seasonal illnesses, Suni encourages people to get vaccinated.
Adam Topp, president and CEO of CKHA, said the cycle of seasonal illness now has Covid as part of the annual slate of ailments.
“It’s never going to be in our rearview mirror. Covid shone a light on respiratory illnesses,” he said.
Meredith Whitehead, CKHA’s vice-president of transformation and chief nursing executive, said there are people in hospital with Covid, adding echoing Topp in saying it’s not going anywhere.
“It speaks to what our new world will look like,” she said.
Whitehead offers simple advice to anyone who comes falls ill.
“Stay home. Don’t go to work. Or at least put a mask on,” she said.
