The Teeswater Medical Centre committee is looking to operate the new facility as a not-for-profit, and it will be seeking approval from South Bruce council to do so.
Co-chair Paul Cronin says after consultation, a not-for-profit model made the most sense.
“When we started out this project, a group of people went around to see the various models for running a medical centre,” he said. “Some were run by the municipality, some were private and there were some that were run by, they called it a health foundation. From that, it was recommended that the best model to follow was a health foundation. But regulations have changed within the Ontario government that we couldn’t set up a health foundation anymore, so we’re going to be setting up a not-for-profit.”
If the committee is granted permission to proceed with that model at a June council meeting, then it can really get the ball rolling.
“Basically once we have the not-for-profit set up… we’ll then be able to go out and negotiate tenant contracts for the building,” Cronin said. “Right now, we can’t do that. We have some potential tenants that we’re going to have in the building but we can’t do anything with them as far as negotiating an agreement, so that would happen after the not-for-profit is set up.
They’ll also establish a board of directors, with a minimum of five members, though their target is eventually to have nine.
The medical centre will be located at 28 Clinton Street, the former home of Studio 410.
It will have have space for an on-site pharmacy and two family doctors, but the expectation is just one will be in place when the clinic launches in December.
The committee is still looking to bring in about about $400,000 to hit its fundraising goal of $2.6 million prior to launch. However, if it falls short of that goal, it has a bridge funding agreement with the Municipality of South Bruce to cover the remainder.
