Waterloo region's COVID-19, Cold and Flu Care Clinic closing its doors

It might be a sign of change in the pandemic that has gripped the world for three years.

The regional COVID-19 Cold & Flu Care Clinic run by Grand River Hospital is closing its doors.

The clinic has been open for the last six months, first at 66 Pinebush Road in Cambridge and later at 50 Sportsworld Drive in Kitchener, after the hospital announced it would be expanding the services offered by the clinic.

Healthcare workers said it’s a bittersweet day, noting there is still a need for its services in the community.

“At our peak, we were seeing up to 400 patients per week, and it was incredible to see the way this team would perform. Everyone did their part, everybody held their own,” Lisa Anstey, manager of the regional COVID care clinic, said.

She added that it never felt chaotic or busy at the clinic because it was well organized.

“The patients were all very pleased with the care they received,” she said.

The clinic has cared for over 8,000 patients over the last six months.

The hospital said the clinic`s closure comes with the return of warmer weather and anticipated seasonal decline of cold and flu.

“If their symptoms are severe and worsening they should go to a local emergency department… pharmacies are a wonderful resource as well. They can provide Plaxlovid prescriptions or they can support through PCR testing,” said Anstey.

Care will now transition to family physicians, urgent care clinics and community pharmacies.

The hospital says the regional clinic grew out of the COVID-19 assessment clinics which were run by local hospitals starting in 2020. Their goal was to divert patients away from hospitals and get the COVID-19, cold and flu care they need.

The clinic's doors closed at 4 p.m. Friday.

Nurses Marilyn Boehm and Lannie Butler have been working side-by-side since March 2020, the pair taking on the pandemic together.

They have worked at the drive-thru testing clinic, vaccine clinic and at the regional COVID-19, Cold & Flu Care Clinic.

“This is our final journey, we’re sad it’s closing,” the duo said. “We worry about what’s going to happen to our patients out there in our community.”

“That’s the only recourse that some of the sicker folks have is to go to the emergency department and we know about the long waits and the high volumes there.”

The clinic has helped divert patients from the emergency rooms, and they say the closure could place the burden back on hospitals.

The Ontario Pharmacist Association also has concerns.

“There can be a challenge with needing to ramp those efforts up again very rapidly given the challenges everyone is facing with workforce, health human resources,” Jen Belcher, vice-president of member relations with the Ontario Pharmacist Association, said

The association is stressing that the pandemic isn’t over yet, despite mandates being dropped.

“It’s absolutely not from what we’ve seen from the impact of the disease on our population both through new infection and some of those longer-term complications associated with people with long COVID for example,” Belcher said.

As for Boehm and Butler, they say they will return if they get called back to the frontlines to continue fighting COVID-19.

OTHER CLINICS SET TO CLOSE

The Grand River Hospital’s COVID-19 clinic is not the only one closing in southern Ontario.

On Friday, the Huron Perth Healthcare Alliance (HPHA) said it will be closing its COVID-19, cold and flu care clinic.

According to the HPHA, the last day of operation for COVID-19 testing will be March 30.

"The contribution this team has made to the quality of our local health system during the pandemic has been outstanding,” said Andrew Williams, President and CEO of HPHA in a news release. “As we close our CCFCC a huge thank you is extended to our community partners including the Stratford Rotary Complex, the wonderful staff at the Stratford Family Health Team, Emad Salama of PrinceRx Pharmacy for generously paying the parking fees for all the CCFCC patients and, of course, all the staff and physicians that worked tirelessly provide this service.”

THE HPHA said over 54,000 PCR tests and over 2,000 clinical assessments have been completed.

Over in Guelph, the Guelph-Wellington-Dufferin Public Health unit said it will be closing its clinic on March 31.