Re: Wes Keller's Story on Physician Issues in Shelburne

I wanted to offer some clarification relating to what was said of the monies that were provided by Dufferin County in support of the creation of clinic space to attract family physicians to our community. The letter said, "Dufferin taxpayers will have forked out over $700,000 in support of physician recruitment" which is somewhat misleading.

The hospital approached the County to gain its support for the creation of medical facilities to attract physicians to three of our communities - Orangeville, Shelburne and Grand Valley.

A request was made for a total $550,000 which was subsequently granted by the County. This was made up of three components.

The first was $100,000 which was earmarked for the creation of a satellite physician clinic in Dufferin Oaks. This satellite clinic would have provided space for physicians working out of Orangeville to travel to Shelburne to practice one or two days a week.

In addition, $10,000 was earmarked for renovations at the physician clinic in Grand Valley. The balance of $440,000 was earmarked to support the construction of the medical clinic located on the property of Headwaters Health Care Centre in Orangeville.

As the planning for these initiatives proceeded, Shelburne developed and implemented plans which saw the development of clinic space in the older part of Dufferin Oaks to house physicians already practicing in that community. Space was also included for additional physicians. It became apparent that the initiative to build a satellite clinic was redundant with what the Town of Shelburne was doing to build its own physician space and, therefore, planning for the satellite clinic was discontinued.

The $100,000 earmarked for this was returned to County and, presumably, was used to help pay being renovated for the family physicians who were moving into that building.

The $10,000 earmarked for Grand Valley was forwarded to them and used to support the renovations that were carried out there. The balance of $440,000 was used to support the construction at Headwaters Health Care Centre of the new physician clinic. These monies were added to monies that were contributed by the Town of Orangeville and several other municipalities all aimed at supporting the construction.

As I believe most people are aware, the investment in the medical clinic has indeed been successful. Over the next several months, we will see the family physician portion of this building completely full.
Bob Baynham
President and Chief
Executive Officer