The Algonquin Family Health Team’s new 3,000-square-foot facility will allow the team to operate its programs in one space, says Patricia Hewes, the executive director and CEO of the family health team.

“Before we had just two rooms in the (Huntsville District Memorial Hospital) and we housed both our palliative care team and our geriatric care team in those two rooms,” she said following Thursday’s grand opening for the newly-expanded Howland Building. “We now have much more space, (staff at the health team) have room to spread out a bit and we have rooms for other programs.”

The Algonquin Family Health Team is comprised of 24 family physicians in Huntsville working with a team of other health care professionals, including a nurse practioner, nine registered nurses, two clinical pharmacists, a social worker, four mental health therapists, plus administrative support who collectively care for their patients by ensuring that someone is available 24 hours a day.

According to a fact sheet on the health team, they have over 21,000 rostered patients, with a goal of reaching 24,000 in the future.

Hewes explained that the new space is important because it brings all the educational programs the health team provides under one roof and allows room for the creation of more.

One program that was previously being run out of the hospital board room is the Healthy Heart Program, where patients who are either suffering from, or at risk of, heart disease and heart conditions were offered an eight-evening course on managing their condition, including seminars on a proper diet, stress management, taking prescription medication and learning to exercise regularly.

“We are also planning a little later in the fall to start a program for asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and we now have the ability to do that. We’ve got space to have the people who are running that program be in this office and we’ve also got space to now have patients come here for education on, for instance, how to use inhalers,” she said.

The new 3,000-square-foot facility cost approximately $960,000 and was funded through various partners, primarily the province, which paid $760,000, said Hewes.

Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare contributed $35,000 in “lands, resources and funds” according to information provided to this newspaper last year, and the Huntsville Memorial Hospital Foundation provided $15,000.

The Town of Huntsville also kicked in $100,000, to be paid in four annual installments to the project after a contentious debate around the council table last year.

Although the majority of council supported the contribution, some councillors felt that health care is a provincial matter and that financially contributing to such a project set a dangerous precedent for future health care needs of the community.

“Fundamentally and philosophically I believe that health care is a provincial jurisdiction,” said councillor Chris Zanetti last July. “I know other municipalities are conned into it, or whatever you want to call it, and I don’t downplay what the family health care unit is going to do . . .  however, I don’t think the funds should come from the municipality and I will not support it.”