The Weekly News
When the Cobequid Community Health Centre moved to its new building in February, 2006, administrators and medical staff were anxious to begin offering expanded services in a larger facility.
Fast forward four years and the glass walled, green coloured building now offers a wide array of diagnostic, clinical and community services to an expanding population.
Serving a wide geographic area encompassing Bedford, Sackville, Dartmouth and surrounding areas, the Sackville-based facility is open to anyone within the Capital District Health Authority's boundaries.
The most recent available statistics show the facility is being well-used. From April 2008 to March 2009, the Cobequid Community Health Centre's lab performed more than 1.2 million tests on 79,552 patients, and the X-ray department saw 50,619 patients and completed 78,520 procedures.
"There are certain trends, and we know the (facility) is being used more all the time because the community is growing," explained Margaret Merlin-Wilson, director of health services for the Cobequid Community Health Centre. "Our catchment area includes very high growth areas like Hammonds Plains, Mount Uniacke, Fall River and so on."
During the 12 month period ending March 2009, the Cobequid's emergency department served 26,253 patients. About 69 per cent of those ER visits were for adult patients, 17 per cent were children, and 14 per cent were seniors.
"We do know the statistics for emergency visits have gone up over six per cent in the last year to about 31,000," Merlin-Wilson said.
She believes the addition of community walk-in clinics has helped reduce the less serious cases coming through the emergency room's doors.
"Triage level one patients are the most serious, and level five are the least. Most level five patients could go to their family doctors or a walk-in clinic, and most now do that," she said. "Yet our volumes are still growing. I think that speaks to the need within our community. We have more doctors on emergency to follow the cases through more efficiently, even though the waits seem long when you're the one waiting."
When the centre was still operating out of the Memory Lane site, only a handful of ambulatory clinics were held there due to a lack of space and a "less than desirable" environment. The four-year-old facility on Freer Lane now offers clinics in general medicine, cardiology and gerontology assessment. When the centre opened, its new and improved services included a CAT scan machine.
Echocardiology and onsite stress testing are linked up to Halifax's Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre so cardiologists can read patient results in real time. A COPD rehabilitation program recently set up shop at the Cobequid Centre. In addition, endoscopy, cystology, urology and gastroenterology consultation clinics are now held there. Chronic pain sufferers will soon benefit from a pain management program, and the successful diabetes education program has expanded.
"We want to do front end work to help people in our community stay healthier. With COPD, it can be very debilitating but very long term," Merlin-Wilson said. "A lot can be done on the path to get people making the most of their capacity and building it up. Before, when there was no program here, people went to Halifax or Dartmouth. When you're already short on energy it becomes difficult."
Wait lists also made it tough for those patients. Three PRIISME (GlaxoSmithKline) grants have helped staff implement a COPD program at the Cobequid centre.
"There's great success and some heart wrenching stories coming out of that program. We can't totally prevent chronic conditions yet, but we can help manage them," she said. "People who work here are quite attached to the community and the public, and we're proud that we haven't lost that as we've grown."
ydentremont@hfxnews.ca
