Kincardine council held its first official meeting of the new term and started with a motion to help get pre-budget approval for a nurse practitioner.
The motion, put forward by councillor Doug Kennedy, would direct staff to include 60% of the wages for a Nurse Practitioner for consideration in the 2023 municipal budget.
Councillor Doug Kennedy put the motion forward for council to consider, saying that “I think it’s really important for our community. We have ten doctors doing the job of 15 or 16 doctors. Our emergency board is the second busiest in all of Grey-Bruce.”
Council approved the amount which is 60% of $85,000 — or $51,000 total — to be earmarked in the upcoming budget.
Kennedy added that this would be the third nurse practitioner for the municipality — one already helps local doctors run their practices, and the second is currently on maternity leave.
This proposed new nurse practitioner would help divert non-emergency patients from the emergency department at the South Bruce Grey Health Centre
“Anybody that came to the ER, who didn’t need to see a doctor, would be sent over to the medical clinic [to see the nurse practitioner],” says Kennedy.
Now it’s up to the mayor and chief administrative officer to meet with the Minister of Health to advocate for more funding from the province for rural healthcare support.