'We're excited to expand': Windsor Essex Community Health Centre relocating to bigger space

The Windsor Essex Community Health Centre (weCHC) in downtown Windsor is on the move, soon relocating from its current Pelissier Street location to a new clinic on University Avenue West.

The new medical hub opens on Monday, Nov. 4, with a plan to extend essential primary care to residents of downtown Windsor and surrounding communities.

"We are excited to be moving," exclaimed weCHC Executive Director, Nancy Brockenshire.

"This move allows us to expand our services, increase our exam rooms, add more clients from the community to come in and be part of our primary care, as well as all of our services here. It's a great location. We have a bus route. We have parking. There is an onsite pharmacy. We're excited to expand."

Officials said the new facility is designed to create a more spacious and welcoming environment that enables service providers to deliver comprehensive and efficient care, noting the move reflects weCHC's commitment to continuously improve and adapt to the needs of the Windsor-Essex community.

"As we have more people in need of primary care, this allows the growth," Brockenshire explained.

"We work closely with our H4 downtown, so people can walk in there and what we saw over the years was more people want to be attached to their primary care. So, the expansion, and adding more of our primary care people here to help, allowed us to attach more."

Brockenshire continued, saying this is Windsor-Essex trying to come together and work on primary care initiatives together.

“How can we partner and be supportive to our clients, whether it’s new immigrants coming to Windsor, whether it's students, whether it's equity deserving individuals that want to be around here?"

Brockenshire said the clinic features an on-site pharmacy and is located on a busy bus route about five minutes from the current weCHC location at 711 Pelissier Street.

She said the focus remains on client-centred care, with all medical services still available, including primary care, counselling, addiction support, foot care, hepatitis C treatment, diabetes management and community education.

"We're excited to bring in more students, continue to partner with our college and university and give opportunities for students to have hands on experience with our clients," Brockenshire added.

Director of Clinical Practice, Amy Visser told CTV News that additional support from a doctor on-site one day a week will be added.

"We're also adding another panel for a nurse practitioner to take a panel,” she said.

An official ribbon-cutting ceremony will take place on Nov. 21.

"Just speaking to some of the services already in the center and to some service providers around the area, they have lists of people waiting for primary care practitioners,” said Visser.

“So, we're hopefully going to tap into the community here. We're going to do a mass mailout to let them know we're here. We'll be able to see more clients more efficiently, be able to have more of our allied health on-site and we'll be able to give them space so they can see clients.”

She added they will not be shuffling clients around to different facilities and everyone will be seen at the new location.

The current Pelisser Street location will close on Friday.