The clinic is being designed so that two physicians can work there.
Its first resident will be Dr. Olamipo Bamigboje, or as she’s come to be known, Dr. Ola.
She is practising out of a temporary clinic in the health centre’s boardroom.
The goal is to have the renovations completed by the end of March, said Cathy Hinther, care team manager at Davidson and District Health Care Centre.
The north wing of the health centre was built in the late 1960s as part of the Prairie View Lodge nursing home. It was left untouched when renovations and construction in 2000 created the health centre.
Much of the wing was mothballed and used for storage except for four rooms at the south end of the hallway, closest to the nursing station that are designated for respite care.
Those respite rooms will remain as will a couple of rooms for storage. The remaining two-thirds of the wing is being converted into the clinic. A door has been installed to separate the health centre from the clinic. Access to the clinic via the health centre and vice versa will be limited to health care professionals. Four former resident rooms in the north wing will be used as clinic rooms. There will be Tele-Health room and a consultation room, a reception room and an office.
Hinther said the work is nearly complete.
Heartland still needs to look at the parking situation.
Parking spots for the clinic are limited. There isn’t a parking lot outside the north wing’s entrance so people will have to park in the health centre parking lot and walk around the facility, following the sidewalk that cuts between the health centre and the Elks Housing Units.
Hinther said in the spring, once the snow and ice is gone, Heartland’s facilities personnel will come out and look at the parking situation to see if a parking area can be created closer to the new clinic’s door.
“Because we started in the middle of winter, it’s difficult to assess,” Hinther said.
She said the health region would have signs posted guiding people to the primary care clinic.
