Telus is expanding the company’s innovative Health for Good program with a new mobile clinic in Toronto’s Parkdale area.
The Parkdale Queen West Mobile Health Clinic will provide essential primary health and harm reduction services in the mid-west region of Toronto as well as offer mobile COVID-19 testing and vaccination at homeless sheltering sites, congregate housing for marginalized populations and in areas with high positivity rates.
“At Telus, we believe that everyone should have access to healthcare when and where they need it, regardless of their socio-economic status,” said Darren Entwistle, President and CEO, Telus. “Through our partnership with Parkdale Queen West CHC and UHN, we are removing many of the barriers facing underserved and at-risk populations in the Parkdale area with access to critical healthcare and social support.”
Entwistle believes this latest expansion of the Health for Good program will enable Telus “to care for our most marginalized citizens at a time when access to high-quality, compassionate healthcare, including vital support for mental wellness, has never been more important.”
Like the mobile health clinic in Mississauga-Peel Region and others across the country, the Parkdale one is also equipped with Telus Health electronic medical record (EMR) technology which enables staff to collect and store health data, examine results over time, and provide better continuity of care to patients who previously had undocumented medical histories.
The medical clinic is divided into two main areas: one for patient reception and mental health care and a second private, more spacious area with an examination table and a physician/nursing workstation. This design helps improve patient privacy and allows the team to treat patients with the dignity and respect they deserve, Telus says.
Angela Robertson, Executive Director of Parkdale Queen West CHC is thrilled to partner with Telus and UHN on this initiative which will allow her community healthcare centre “to deliver on our mission of providing healthcare for people when, where and how they need it.”
Dr. Andrew Boozary, Executive Director of UHN’s Social Medicine Program feels this initiative will help address the gap in healthcare access among marginalized communities which has only widened during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The mirage of universality in our healthcare system has cruelly punished people living in poverty for decades. And the COVID-19 pandemic has only deepened the divide in accessing healthcare and imposed even starker social inequities,” said Dr. Boozary. “The launch of a mobile health clinic in partnership with Parkdale Queen West CHC and Telus is exactly the sort of innovation we need, not only to respond to the pandemic, but in building lasting partnerships that shift care to the centre of communities that need it most.”
Since the program’s inception in 2014, Telus Health Mobile Clinics have supported over 50,000 patient visits.
For more information about Telus Health for Good, visit telus.com/healthforgood.
