Brantford considers owning family medicine clinic

A stethoscope sits on an open book in this stock image. (Pixabay/Pexels.com)

The city of Brantford is looking at a new approach to attract doctors to the city.

Councillors voted in favour of asking the CAO to put together a report on obtaining a city-owned space to host a family medicine clinic in hopes of bolstering the city’s number of family doctors.

According to the motion before councilors Tuesday night, more than 20 per cent of the city’s residents do not have access to a family doctor and many newcomers travel to their original communities for doctor’s visits.

The motion states the city needs another 14 – 16 fulltime family physicians to meet the current need.

“You look at the need for doctors. You look at the ability of us to compete with other communities to attract doctors, and although we think that we are the cat’s behind here in Brantford, and as [Walter Gretzky] would say, the centre of the universe, if you are a young doctor starting out it’s not necessarily about the community, it’s about dollars and cents and the ability to get up and running in a hurry. I think this gives us a leg up,” Councillor Dan McCreary said during the discussion.

The motion passed unanimously.

Some of the spaces being considered include 177 Colborne Street West, 58 Dalhousie Street, and 99 Wayne Gretzky Parkway.

Councillor Richard Carpenter also suggested the former tourism building located near the Lynden Park Mall on Wayne at 399 Gretzky Parkway.

“It has lots of office space and has the map at the beginning of it on the floor of the city of Brantford. It’s fully accessible, the doors are fully automatic, it’s fully equipped, it meets all the standards – it would be an excellent location for such a health hub. We already own the building, we wouldn’t have to buy something.”