bringing primary care to some of ottawa's most needy one patient at a time
4 minute read
the ottawa nurse practitioner-led clinic, opened last september, is one of 27 in ontario that are led by nurse practitioners and funded by the health ministry. it is a model that works, executive director hoda mankal says.
jean levac
/
postmedia
when ottawa’s first nurse practitioner-led clinic opened its doors along montreal road last september, vanier and overbrook had a greater proportion of residents without primary care than any other parts of the city.
six months later, the ottawa nurse practitioner-led clinic, which has been called “a love letter to vanier,” is working to shift that reality — one patient at a time.
the clinic, which has five full-time nurse practitioners along with other health and social service providers, is open to anyone living within the k1l and k1k postal code areas, covering vanier and overbrook, where the need is greatest. it is not a walk-in clinic and all services are covered by ohip. it provides primary care to patients in the neighbourhood without family doctors.
some people began signing up for primary care at the clinic even before it opened at its permanent location in september, said hoda mankal, a nurse practitioner who is the clinic’s executive director. then the floodgates opened.
at its peak, the clinic registered one new patient every three minutes. some people from as far away as perth reached out, trying to register as patients.
mankal hopes the clinic can eventually expand its footprint, but for now it is focusing on bringing primary care to residents of vanier and overbrook, some of whom have gone a decade or more without it. not only does the area have the lowest attachment rate to primary care of any neighbourhood in the city, but it also has the highest rates of material deprivation. as of 2024, approximately 14,000 local residents were without primary care.
just over six months in, the clinic has offered primary care to near 2,000 patients, and growing. its current capacity is around 6,000, mankal said.
it has helped clear the province’s health care connect waiting list of local residents looking for primary care. it has also registered more than 100 newborns from montfort hospital who were born without primary care, taking on their siblings and parents as well. children from vanier and overbrook who show up at cheo without a family doctor are also taken on by the clinic. the clinic is also making connections with social agencies and other health organizations throughout the area.
advertisement
the response from many new patients has been relief and sometimes disbelief, mankal said.
one pregnant woman called the clinic, thinking it might be a scam, after receiving a letter saying they would provide her with primary care. after being assured the clinic would offer primary care to both her and her baby, at no cost, she burst into tears.
“we have a lot of grateful tears,” mankal said.
the clinic also recently registered a single mother who was living at an inn across montreal road providing temporary housing to many recent immigrants and refugees. the woman was having a hypertension crisis and feared returning to hospital to seek care. mankal said officials helped her across the street to the clinic, where she was examined and given prescriptions to treat the hypertension. that woman and her daughter were both attached to primary care the same day.
mankal says it is rewarding for the clinic to take on patients who have been without primary care for so long.
“these are people who have not had access to care for more than a decade. no one gets better waiting for care.” she said the clinic had diagnosed cases of late onset cancer in people who had gone without care and screening for years.
“i would just like to say that this clinic is a godsend after waiting to get consistent, reliable care for over 10 years,” one patient wrote as part of a survey. “my nurse practitioner is professional, knowledgeable, thorough, and i have complete faith in her ability to provide me with the care that i need.”
hoda mankal is a nurse practitioner and executive director of the ottawa nurse practitioner-led clinic in vanier.
jean levac
/
postmedia
the nurse practitioner-led clinic is the first of its kind in ottawa. it is putting down roots and expanding at a time when the ontario government has been criticized for not being more flexible about bringing nurse practitioners into the public health system despite a federal directive to do so.
advertisement
the clinic is one of 27 in ontario that are led by nurse practitioners and funded by the health ministry. it is a model that works, mankal said.
“we may be the first one in ottawa, but it is a tried, tested and true model. nurse practitioners have been around for over half a century. this is not novel, it is one of the most researched, proven health care professions out there,” she said.
“we are just at a tipping point where some decisions have to be made about how we optimize this for people who need it and integrate nurse practitioners into the system.”
less than a year into its operation, the clinic is building more examination rooms and spaces for staff. mankal hopes to eventually expand the team of nurse practitioners by four or five, nearly doubling capacity.
it has drawn the attention of dr. jane philpott, who heads a primary-care action team with a mandate to connect every person in ontario to primary health care by 2029. mankal said they expect philpott to come to the clinic for a tour in the coming weeks.
when the clinic opened last september, stephanie plante, ottawa city councillor for rideau-vanier, called it a “love letter to vanier.”
that phrase resonated with many of those who came to celebrate its opening. it also stuck with the clinic’s executive director, mankal: it is the name she has given to the monthly newsletter sent out to patients and community partners with wellness and self-care tips and other information.
“the community has been so welcoming and grateful,” mankal said. “we want to feel like we belong to the community and the community can rely on us. that is why the newsletter came to be.”
our website is your destination for up-to-the-minute news, so make sure to bookmark our homepage and sign up for our newsletters so we can keep you informed.
share story
