Charlottetown,P.E.I. – A new medical home clinic at the University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI) is set to open next week, offering a collaborative approach to healthcare and aiming to alleviate pressure on the province’s strained primary care system, according to Health P.E.I. CEO Dr. Michael Fraser.
Medical homes integrate doctors with other healthcare workers to provide comprehensive services. Dr. Fraser has stated the UPEI medical home anticipates serving approximately 10,000 patients within two years. This comes as over 35,500 Islanders currently await assignment to a primary care provider, according to the provincial patient registry.
Addressing MLAs on Friday, Dr. Fraser highlighted the challenges in reducing the patient registry,noting that physician retirements can leave up to 3,000 patients without a doctor,potentially requiring two to three new physicians to cover the resulting workload.
Despite these hurdles, Dr. Fraser emphasized Health P.E.I.’s progress in improving access to care. The waitlist for cataract surgery has been eliminated, and virtual healthcare visits have increased in the past year. The province is also seeing increases in MRIs, CT scans, and ultrasounds, alongside open-access mental health counselling services that do not require a referral.
Investments in the UPEI medical school are already proving beneficial,Dr. fraser said. The first students were welcomed to the P.E.I. campus of Memorial University’s faculty of medicine this fall, with patient medical homes to be integrated into the school’s curriculum. Health P.E.I. intends to leverage the clinic’s learning environment, drawing support from various faculties and incorporating nurses, kinesiologists, and physicians as learners within the medical home.
