Beautiful Plains Medical Clinic set for another expansion

Details

Published on Thursday, December 22, 2016

By Kate Jackman-Atkinson

The Neepawa Banner/Neepawa Press

The next phase of the Beautiful Plains Medical Clinic expansion moved one more step forward last week.  On Dec. 16, the deal was finalized for the Neepawa Area Development Corporation (NADCO), which owns the clinic, to purchase the property to the east of the clinic. The transfer will take place at the end of December.

NADCO chair Murray Parrott explained that the new expansion, which is set to start construction next April, will enlarge the building and provide some amenities better suited to the growing clinic. They are hoping that construction will be completed by September. This will mark the second major expansion to the clinic since NADCO, a partnership between the Town of Neepawa and the Rural Municipalities of Rosedale, Glenella-Lansdowne and North Cypress-Langford, purchased the Neepawa clinic from Dr. Chapman in 2008 and began developing it as a community clinic. 

The clinic itself is run by the Beautiful Plains Medical Clinic committee, made up of councillors and community members. This group, some of whom have been involved since the beginning, have worked hard to get the clinic going and keep it growing. 

The seeds for this next phase of expansion began around September of 2015, when NADCO began looking at buying the houses along Highway 16, to the south of the clinic.  The first house was bought in October of that year.

The new addition will create a net gain of six new examination rooms, which means that the clinic can accommodate 10 doctors, with two rooms each.  With scheduling, such as two doctors sharing three rooms, Parrott says that they could accommodate even more doctors. The new examination rooms will be located on the north east side of the building and a new entrance, on the south-west side of the building, will be created. He said that the design of the expansion included input from the perspective of both physicians and patients.

In the basement of the addition, there will be a mechanical room, a larger boardroom that will be better able to accommodate the clinic’s staff for meetings and a second suite for medical students. The previous expansion included a suite which has seen regular use by medical students working in Neepawa as they complete their MD schooling or residency. Having the suite has been a very helpful tool in the community’s efforts to attract young doctors to the clinic.

The community’s Doctor Retention and Recruitment committee, which includes both community members and physicians, has been active in getting out and talking to medical students about Neepawa. As NADCO has undertaken clinic expansions and upgrades, the feedback from this committee has helped create an environment that is attractive to physicians. Parrott said that some of the amenities younger doctors are looking for include the ability to consult with other physicians and electronic filing and record keeping, both of which the clinic currently offers. The suite has also played a big part in giving prospective doctors a chance to come and get a feel for the community and its medical environment.

The clinic expansion is being funded by the proceeds of the very successful Medical Clinic Lottery, at no cost to the NADCO partner municipalities. Talking about the success of the clinic as it looks towards this new expansion, “It’s a real community effort,” said Parrott, “It’s a perfect example of how our municipalities can work together.”