Community receives new clinic

A pregnancy clinic opens in Thorncliffe Park after 'gap analysis'

New pregnancy clinic opens in Thorncliffe Park.
The Thorncliffe Park Pregnancy Clinic has just opened, located at 1 Leaside Park Dr., opens in Thorncliffe Park following a healthcare 'gap analysis' of the area. Sidra Sheikh // Toronto Observer

Thorncliffe Park is benefiting from a new addition to the neighbourhood — one that makes it easier for those in the community to bring new additions into the world.

The Thorncliffe Park Pregnancy Clinic has just opened, in response to a healthcare “gap analysis” of the area.

Thorncliffe Park often becomes home to many newcomers to Canada. Eventually these newcomers look to expand their family and need services nearby to help them do so, but according to the gap analysis there is a shortage of services available.

“This is a small community, in the sense it’s a small area, and within that area, you have a large population and primary healthcare access is very limited — so the vision is to have primary care,” said the co-ordinator of the pregnancy clinic, Madhu Choudhary.

According to a news release, the pregnancy clinic plans to provide 150 mothers and babies with care throughout the pregnancy, up to six weeks after birth.

Four physicians are currently on rotation at the clinic, including Dr. Emmanuelle Britton. Britton originates from the South East Toronto Family Health Team, which is one of the partners of the pregnancy clinic.

Others partners include Toronto East General Hospital, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and the Midwives Clinic of East York — which is located next door.

“I think the more services we can give to women the better,” Lynn Fairweather said. “That doesn’t mean that they take over us or we take over them, but we work together to provide everybody service and that’s what’s great.”

The pregnancy clinic will be working collaboratively with its neighbour, the midwives clinic.

“Midwives are trained for normal child-bearing, so if there’s something that’s a little high-risk and needs a medical intervention, we can refer to this clinic now, which is wonderful,” Fairweather said.

The goal of all the partners involved is not to overlap one another, but do the best they can to make sure everyone has access to primary health care.

“This is just the first step. The broad view is to look not just at pregnancy, but women’s health,” Choudhary said.

The clinic is located at 1 Leaside Park Drive and is currently open on Monday afternoons from one to four p.m., but as the demand increases, more days and times will be offered.

An appointment can be made by calling 416-421-6369, but in the near future the clinic hopes to have a more web-savvy presence, allowing patients to register and book appointments online.

About this article

By: Sidra Sheikh
Copy editor: Ethan Manninen
Posted: Feb 21 2015 5:26 pm
Edition:
Filed under: Science & Health