Toronto is preparing to make its first appointments in its new micro-clinic pilot program to vaccinate residents age two to 16, with the hopes of significantly reducing the incidence of diseases like measles, mumps and rubella.
The micro-clinic will be set up in almost every city ward and will offer a team of highly trained healthcare providers and nurses, at between $65 and $140 an appointment.
The program, which starts at the end of this month, will be administered by practitioners from the Fond du Lac Institute, who will focus their effort primarily on Mumps, Measles, Rubella and the poliovirus (the last two are most likely to be in children)
In total, more than 1,000 free vaccination appointments are available over the next three months and an additional 50,000 doses of the rubella vaccine will be given by 100 pharmacists.
This is a unique public health program for Toronto. It will affect individual families and the entire community by significantly reducing the incidence of diseases like mumps, rubella and measles. It is designed to serve the community as a whole, allowing people who do not have a regular doctor or family medical plan to be vaccinated in one setting. And it is a “public health answer to a community problem” as the Toronto Medical Clinic Manager Anne Watson says.
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“This is about the ability to make vaccinations more affordable and accessible. It will allow people who have not had the opportunity to go to a professional to get vaccinated in one place.”
This micro-clinic is designed to provide better access to vaccinations for the whole community.
This initiative will not come without bumps.
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“Any time you tackle a complex problem it doesn’t always go smoothly.”
But as Marcela Arrechea, the executive director at Fond du Lac says, “We’re optimistic that over time, we will overcome the various challenges that our program may face.”
She notes that this pilot program could be scaled up to 10 to 15 micro-clinics, each with 150-200 providers.
They will still be certified to provide the lowest-cost, high-quality care for their customers, unlike many organizations who in order to compete cannot keep wages below minimum wage.
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