A community vision realized

By Carolyn Sloan

The Spectator

NovaNewsNow.com

Leslie Harris hasn’t been able to stop smiling.

The administrative coordinator for the Bear River and Area Community Health Clinic has seen over the past few weeks a long-held community vision become a reality.

“Thirteen years this clinic has been here,” says Harris, “and we’re finally seeing what we wanted to see from the beginning.”

The very fact that she is working at the clinic is a dream in itself. After more than a decade, it is the first time there has been funding in place for a paid staff person. As one of the original board members who helped deliver the facility to the community, it is an honour for Harris to be its first employee. What’s more, with two new doctors on board, the facility is finally able to provide the level of service that was envisioned from the start. The “Little Clinic that Could” is now a can-do operation.

“The last couple weeks, I just don’t know what to say,” says Harris. “Things have seemed to fit together like a puzzle.

“If they (the people of Bear River) believe in what’s happening, you’ll never find a community that will pull harder together.”

NEW PHYSCIANS

All together, the clinic now offers the services of three doctors, a nurse practitioner, a massage therapist, and an electrolysis specialist.

Doctor Roy Harding, who had a full-time practice in Digby for many years, has recently joined the Bear River clinic. As soon as Harris found out that he wasn’t working in Digby anymore, she immediately invited him to work from Bear River. She received a prompt response from his office. They wanted to know the procedure for getting into the clinic.

“I said, if he shows up at the door, he’s in,” says Harris with a laugh.

After getting a tour of the facility, Harding later agreed to join the team. He now sees patients every other Thursday and Friday.

Doctor Grant Kinsley will be another new face at the Bear River clinic. A practitioner out of the Weymouth clinic, he was quickly snatched up after word got out that he was leaving his practice.

“[The news] came through on a fax,” she explains. “While I was reading the fax, I was dialing his number.”

Kinsley is set to start working out of Bear River on February 11, and will continue to work throughout the week. While he will not be at the clinic on a regular basis, he will be coming for a week at a time to see patients. Harris says that she will coordinate both doctors’ hours so that the community has physician coverage for as many days as possible.

RISING FROM THE ASHES

Getting to this point hasn’t been easy, she adds, and the clinic’s board has certainly had their share of challenges. In March of 2006, a fire consumed the facility, leaving the building completely gutted, and the community unsure if they would be able to rebuild. Luckily, with insurance coverage and funding from both the province and the municipality, the clinic was helped back onto its feet.

These days, it’s looking better than ever. The building, which was formerly a Royal Bank, is now outfitted as a clinic, with an enclosed reception area, three exam rooms, and a physician’s office.

“What we functioned like before was a bank that was trying to look like a health clinic,” Harris explains. “I think from bad things can come good if you look.”