Windsor Regional Hospital is closing down its Paediatric Urgent Medical Assessment Clinic but it will continue under a new model.
The PUMA clinic is being moved inside Met Campus and as of April 4, will become a paediatric outpatient area to provide a non-emergency option for parents.
Since August 2021, the PUMA clinic has been located inside a temporary facility next to the Emergency Department parking lot at Met Campus. It was designed ease pressure on the ER's by treating children under the age of 17, offering COVID-19 testing and urgent care medical assessment based on potential COVID-19 symptoms.
Karen Riddell, Chief Nursing Executive at Windsor Regional Hospital, says they recognized the PUMA Clinic is a valuable service.
"Even though the demands from a COVID perspective may be less, the need for having somewhere you can bring your child on an urgent, non-emergency basis, but on an urgent basis, when you can't get into see your primary care physician, the need was still there," she says.
Between Aug. 31, 2021 and March 30, 2022, the clinic received 8,491 visits. However, the clinic has averaged only 9 patients per day since March 1.
Riddell says they are going to replicate what they were doing at the PUMA Clinic within the paediatric outpatient clinic in the hospital.
"We got lots of great feedback from the community that this has been a need for a longtime in our the community, we really wanted to be able provide that service on an ongoing basis," she says.
Riddell says the original PUMA Clinic in the parking lot is still there and it's not going anywhere.
"In the event that something changes in the community, as we're all watching the numbers of COVID, in the event we need to ramp up again because of the demand and it's not able to be accommodated within paeds outpatient, then we would certainly have a plan to reopen the PUMA clinic." she adds.
Those looking to attend the new clinic can enter through the main Met Campus entrance on Lens Avenue.
Patients will then be directed to the 3rd floor outpatient paediatric unit where they will check in with the clerk across from the elevators.
The new clinic will be open 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday to Friday.
The Ouellette Campus COVID-19 Clinical Assessment Centre remains open to individuals 3 months of age and older who meet specific criteria for molecular COVID-19 testing or treatment.