Staff at CFB Trenton’s Military Family Resource Centre are working to bring a nurse practitioner clinic to the area to help increase support and care for local military families.
The MFRC and Victorian Order of Nurses have teamed up on a proposal to the Ministry of Health to put a clinic somewhere in the area which would include four nurse practitioners, a couple of registered practical nurses and a social worker.
MFRC Executive Director Tamara Kleinschmidt tells Quinte News, despite popular belief, military families aren’t provided primary medical care on the base and have the same issues finding family doctors as civilians.
“It’s exasperating a little bit simply because military families move so regularly. So there’s a real disjointed approach to their primary healthcare, it’s a real challenge. They spend a lot of time in after hours clinics and emergency rooms, while they’re waiting to get a doctor.”
She added that, along with providing easier access to care for military families, a new clinic would free up local healthcare providers “for an already stressed community looking for medical support”.
“So that means less visits by military families to emergency rooms and after hours clinics. That means families that are currently rostered, or would be rostered in the future, could move to the nurse practitioner clinic and free up space for families as well. So it really is a benefit to the whole community.”
Kleinschmidt says that if possible, they’d like to have the clinic located on the base, but they’d settle for anywhere that’s accessible for families.
