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Where to Access Care in Chatham-Kent
MEDIA RELEASE: Health Care Options For Respiratory Illnesses in Chatham-Kent
November 27, 2024 – As respiratory season is upon us, the Chatham-Kent Ontario Health Team (CKOHT) and its healthcare partners are working together to ensure residents have access to a variety of care options. Choosing the right place for care helps avoid unnecessary Emergency Department (ED) visits, reduces wait times, and ensures timely care for all.
“During this busy respiratory season, we encourage everyone to understand their care options,” says Melissa Sharpe Harrigan, Chatham-Kent Ontario Health Team Executive Lead. “By working together, we can provide the best care possible while easing the strain on emergency services.”
Care Options Available:
- Primary Care Providers: If you have a family doctor or nurse practitioner, contact their office first for non-urgent needs.
- Pharmacies: Pharmacists can provide advice and treatment for minor illnesses and renew prescriptions.
- Online Services: Access non-emergency urgent care at UrgentCareOntario.ca to have an appointment with a nurse practitioner through secure video chat. You can also go to HealthConnectOntario or call 8-1-1 for health care advice.
- Walk-In Clinics: For those who do not have access to primary care, visit locations like the Tilbury Walk-In Clinic (Monday-Friday) or BridgeCare (Saturdays & Sundays) for in-person care.
- MobileCare: Visit the MobileCare bus when it’s near your community for walk-in primary care or mental health and addiction services.
For life-threatening emergencies, always call 9-1-1 or visit the nearest emergency department.
This collective community effort to seek medical care ensures residents have multiple options for seasonal illnesses while preserving emergency department resources for emergencies.
For information on flu, COVID-19 and RSV vaccinations, visit www.ckoht.ca/vaccines.
Contact:
Melissa Sharpe-Harrigan
Chatham-Kent Ontario Health Team Executive Transformation Lead
melissa.sharpe-harrigan@ckoht.ca | 519-401-8313

MEDIA RELEASE: Several Locations Offer COVID-19, Flu & RSV Vaccines Across C-K
MEDIA RELEASE: Several Locations Offer COVID-19, Flu & RSV Vaccines Across Chatham-Kent
Chatham-Kent [November 8, 2024] – Chatham-Kent Ontario Health Team (CKOHT) healthcare partners are now offering several accessible options for COVID-19 and flu vaccines, and RSV immunization, to help prevent respiratory illnesses this season. Local Chatham-Kent residents have multiple options to receive their vaccinations including: local pharmacies, MobileCare, Chatham-Kent Public Health, and primary care organizations. Different locations offer different vaccines. To find a vaccination/immunization location near you, please visit www.ckoht.ca/vaccines or check www.ontario.ca/vaccine-locations for additional options. If you are still unsure where to go or have additional questions, you can receive health advice, services and information from a registered nurse to find health services or information, 24 hours a day, seven days a week:
- Visit Health811 online
- Call 811
- Call toll-free TTY: 1-866-797-0007
Receiving vaccinations is a simple yet powerful way for residents in our community to protect themselves and reduce the impact of illness across Chatham-Kent. Dr. Briana Yee-Providence, family physician and Physician Co-Chair with CKOHT stated, “As a physician, I urge everyone in our community to get vaccinated against common respiratory illnesses, including influenza, RSV, and COVID-19. We have already seen many healthy individuals over the past few months with persistent symptoms and prolonged illness. Vaccines are the best way to protect you from illness and keep our community and loved ones healthy.”
These vaccines help reduce illnesses, which in turn alleviates pressure on Chatham-Kent Health Alliance’s (CKHA) Emergency Department, helping to avoid longer wait times for non-emergency cases during high illness seasons.
CKHA prepares for a surge in Emergency Department visits and admissions to hospital every seasonal illness period as viruses circulate throughout the community. This often pushes the hospital’s bed capacity beyond 100 per cent. CKHA has already observed an increasing trend in patients presenting with seasonal illness. This increased demand can lead to longer than expected wait times for both emergency services as well as admissions to hospital. Vaccination can help prevent serious illness and reduce pressure on CKHA’s Emergency Department and bed capacity during the seasonal surge months.
Additionally, CKHA’s Women and Children’s Program endorses the Ontario Ministry of Health’s strong recommendation for all babies born in Ontario after January 1, 2024, to receive the Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) immunization to prevent severe illness and hospitalization during the RSV season. RSV can cause serious respiratory complications, especially in infants under one year old, those born prematurely, or those with lung or heart conditions. If your child is born in hospital they will have the option to receive this injection after birth and before discharge. If your child was born before the start of RSV season and is less than one year of age, ideally, your child should receive this injection in early November. Options to receive it include:
- Discuss with your Obstetrician / Midwife the RSVpreF (Abrysvo) vaccination in pregnancy; OR
- Discuss with your Healthcare Provider for all infants born at Chatham-Kent Health Alliance before being discharge home the Nirsevimab (Beyfortus®) immunization; OR
- Discuss with your local Public Health Unit (in Chatham call 519-352-7270 ext. 2); OR
- Discuss with your Primary Healthcare Provider
Questions about RSV can be directed to your local Public Health Unit or Primary Healthcare Provider.
For more information, please contact:
Melissa Sharpe-Harrigan
Chatham-Kent Ontario Health Team Executive Transformation Lead,
melissa.sharpe-harrigan@ckoht.ca
Fannie Vavoulis
Chatham-Kent Health Alliance Director of Communications and Patient Relations, fvavoulis@ckha.on.ca



BridgeCare Official Ribbon Cutting Event
BridgeCare Official Ribbon Cutting Event
On Thursday August 15, CKOHT and its partners held a BridgeCare Clinic Ribbon Cutting Event at its location of 20 Emma St., Chatham. BridgeCare is a new weekend primary care clinic that is walk-in style for patients without a family doctor or nurse practitioner. BridgeCare has serviced 235 unique patients and over 285 visits on 6 weekends from July 6 to August 11. The event commemorated the clinic’s early success with an official ceremony with special guests in attendance such as MPP Trevor Jones, Mayor Darrin Canniff and many local health care leaders.
BridgeCare is a new CKOHT initiative funded by the Ministry of Health to assist with providing primary care services to the approximately 25,000 residents in Chatham-Kent who do not have a family doctor or nurse practitioner. The goal of the funding is to increase access and attachment to primary care.
“Those 40 to 80 people a weekend that we’re seeing would otherwise not have access to care. So the options for them would have been to be seen at CKHA or another hospitalized institution,” said Jason Bartell, executive director of the CK Family Health Team. ” Chatham-Kent doesn’t really have that many walk-in clinics, so it does put that pressure on the hospital. So this is now an opportunity to have care that’s outside of the hospital.” “We really tried to focus on what the need of Chatham-Kent was,” said Bartell.
Additionally as part of this initiative, the CKOHT and its partners have helped to expand service delivery for the MobileCare CK clinic on wheels – to allow more hours to be offered at additional locations across CK. As part of the Ribbon Cutting event, attendees were also able to take a tour of the MobileCare bus. CKOHT continues to work collaboratively with its partners on unique and innovative models of health care to service the CK community.
CKOHT Call for New Patient Partners
CKOHT's Call for New Patient Partners
CKOHT is looking for patient advisors to join our team! The Chatham-Kent Ontario Health Team recognizes the value of lived experience, and has created a team of patient advisors called the Patient and Family Advisory Council (PFAC).
We encourage individuals with unique backgrounds or experiences to apply to join this team, including applicants who self-identify as a member of a racial, ethnic, cultural equity deserving group. We are especially looking to add council members that can share their experiences accessing and receiving care in CK from the perspective of a marginalized or vulnerable persons as we work to redesign care experiences and improve outcomes for all.