West-end Kingston after hours medical clinic closes

Hundreds of patients in Kingston’s west end have lost important access to healthcare services.

Last week, a busy after-hours clinic in a strip mall near Bayridge and Taylor-Kidd Boulevard closed its doors due to staff shortages. A sign on the door says the after-hours clinic is closed permanently.

Global News has learned from a business owner in the same development that the closure of the Bayridge After Hours Walk-in Clinic may have been the result of a lack of family physicians to staff the clinic.

But the office, located at Bayridge Centre West, won’t be closing entirely. The Bayridge Family Medicine Clinic, which runs during the day, continues to operate during regular business hours.

“We need the after-hours clinics even more now, with the decrease in family physicians,” said Colleen Barber, a former registered nurse, who is concerned about the closure of the clinic.

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Barber claims the closure of the after-hours clinic will cause a trickle-down effect.

Although the numbers aren’t concrete, late last year, politicians discussed the possibility of a doctor shortage in the city.

“We have neighbours that don’t have a family doctor that rely on these out-patient clinics and so it’s going to have a real impact on people,” Barber said.

Kingston previously experienced a doctor shortage in 2007, when the province designated the municipality as in high-need of family doctors. This allowed funding to be allocated to the city, which brought 28 new family physicians to Kingston.

But in September 2018, city council passed a motion to recommend the province once again designate Kingston as a high-needs city for family physicians.

The motion noted the number of family physicians was declining “due to deaths, retirements, relocations, reduced patient roster size due to the increased complexity of care for patients, and changing work-life balances.”

Around the time of the motion, there was some debate as to just how many people were living without a family doctor in the city, but local medical consultant Deb Lefebvre estimated the number to be somewhere around 15,000.

According to a sign posted at the former after-hours clinic, those needing urgent non-life-threatening care are advised to go to a handful of other clinics in town or Hotel Dieu Hospital.

—With files from Alexandra Mazur.