CORNWALL – A one-stop-shop for health care services in Cornwall is still on the table but two developers are taking a more reserved timeline.
As Cornwall Newswatch first told you in January, Daniel Gauthier of Ottawa-based Green Soldiers Inc. was working on giving the former Second Street Site of the Cornwall Community Hospital a makeover.
Gauthier has moved on to another project in Montreal and Matt Cinnamon and Dan Orr, developers with the same company, are continuing the work at 510 Second Street East.
The building name has also changed – it will be called “The Care Centre.” While Green Soldiers is a renewable energy company, “The Care Centre” is a separate and unaffiliated development project for the firm.
“We’re trying to help fill gaps. Cornwall evidently has (health care) gaps and we’re still trying to figure out how best to address them,” Orr told Cornwall Newswatch. “We really want to find a community focus.”
Orr and Cinnamon held a breakfast with area health service providers (HSP) three weeks ago to talk about their plans and to start networking. The developers said they have also received a letter of support for the project from current Glengarry Memorial Hospital CEO Linda Morrow.
There’s also an advisory board helping them to find the health care needs in the region.
The board is made up of surgeon and life coach Dr. Raji Menon, former Glengarry Memorial Hospital CEO Jerry Adams, Elder Abuse Ontario regional consultant Manon Thompson and Christine Giroux, Director of Care (Health and Wellness) at Chartwell Chateau Cornwall, who also has an expertise in community nursing.
Orr said it will take careful consultation and negotiations to make sure they fill those needs without duplication in services – something that will take longer than six months, which was the original timeline. “We need to be reserved,” Orr said emphatically. One of their biggest priorities right now is finding family physicians (GP’s), a nucleus of most medical clinics.
Orr said, because the building is so large, they have talked with a couple groups about having a social services hub in the building.
“Once you start asking for feedback in this town, boy do you get it. This is a community building, the community owns it, let’s give it back to them and give them what they need,” Cinnamon added.
People wishing to give feedback on services that they would like to see at “The Care Centre” can email Cinnamon and Orr at info@thecarecentre.ca
The team already has a doctor on site, Dr. Richard Kaley, a psychologist. They are actively working on leases and hope to have more announcements in the coming weeks.
“This is hand-in-hand (to improve health care), this isn’t a competition type of arena,” Orr said.
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