Beautiful Plains Medical Clinic progressing well

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Beautiful Plains Medical Clinic progressing well

Details: Published on Wednesday, January 9, 2013

By: Ken Waddell

myWestman.ca

The Beautiful Plains Medical Clinic expansion is well underway in downtown Neepawa. The clinic is administered by a committee of the Neepawa and Area Development Corporation (NADC), which is chaired by Councillor Wayne Hildebrand of Langford with representatives from the RMs of Langford, Rosedale and Lansdowne and the Town of Neepawa.

Each municipal organization contributed to the original fund to purchase the clinic, convert it to a community-based clinic and extensively renovate the building. Currently five doctors work out of the building on Mountain Ave.

When the committee decided on an expansion plan in 2012 to take the clinic up to a possible eight doctor capacity, the municipalities came back with more support.

Going back in history a bit, it was inter-municipal co-operation a number of years ago that was the backbone of the Country Meadows Care Home fund-raising efforts. After the care home project was completed, the fund ended up with a surplus of $126,200.

At the final meeting of the Country Meadows fundraising committee, it was decided that because the fundraising had been done across the whole community and beyond, it was felt that the surplus should be refunded to the respective partnering municipalities, based on the same formula as the municipalities contributed.

The surplus refunded dollars were distributed on the following apportioned basis: Town of Neepawa-$69,249, RM of Rosedale-$33,154, RM of Langford-$12,165, RM of Lansdowne-$11,630.

The three RMs all passed resolutions in 2012, turning their apportioned refund dollars over to the Beautiful Plains Medical Clinic committee to be used to reduce debt requirements and/or help cover cost of the clinic expansion. At the Jan. 8 council meeting, the Town of Neepawa also passed a resolution, designating their share of the funds to the clinic expansion.

Fundraising for the clinic and the expansion has been ongoing and last year’s Beautiful Plains Medical Clinic lottery raised nearly $90,000. Mary Ellen Clark, who heads up the lottery effort said in an interview with The Banner that, “The 2013 lottery is set to go. The early bird draw will be May 12 and the final draw will be June 6.”