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Local Health Unit starts first Community Clinic in Westport

MEDIA RELEASE:

Leeds, Grenville and Lanark District Health Unit

April 23, 2021

On Tuesday, April 20, the first Community Clinic was held at the Westport Community Centre/Arena. The Leeds Grenville and Lanark District Health Unit worked with the municipality and a number of local partners to set up the 7 hour long Community Clinic where 280 people were vaccinated. The goal of the Community Clinics is to provide access to vaccinations in communities outside of our Fixed Site Clinics in Almonte, Smiths Falls, Kemptville and Brockville so that those who are unable to travel have the opportunity to receive a vaccine.

Setting up a Community Clinic comes with a set of requirements provided by the Ministry of Health. The amount of space to keep stations 2m apart and the ability to provide internet access are the main factors needed to be able to run a Community Clinic. The team learned some valuable lessons from the mobile clinics held in Long Term Care and Retirement homes as well as in congregate settings and EMS home vaccinations that helped them in planning. Clinics are community driven and achieved by partnership between public health, municipalities, family health teams, health care providers and other interested partners.

To plan the Westport clinic, we started working with the community over a month ago. A lot of work from agencies and volunteers helped make the day a success. The Clinic was held from 10am to 5pm with the morning appointments being booked through the local pharmacy and primary case to give ensure local people had access to the clinic. The clinic filled up quickly with many eager residents wanting to be vaccinated. A second dose clinic will be planned for around August 10th.

In the future, we look forward to providing more Community Clinics in other areas of LGL. A clinic is scheduled for April 27th in Elgin. Vaccine supply continues to be the factor that determines the ability to plan more clinics. 

Watch for promotion through your local municipality for Community Clinics in your area. Until then, we encourage all individuals over 40 years old to contact a participating pharmacy to see if they are providing AstraZeneca vaccine.

For more information about COVID-19 vaccine, visit: https://healthunit.org/health-information/covid-19/protection/. You can also call 1-800-660-5853 or connect with LGLHealthunit on Facebook and Twitter.