Pubnico Head medical clinic purchase "very close"

By Eric Bourque

THE VANGUARD

NovaNewsNow.com

Plans for the purchase of a Yarmouth County medical clinic by the local industrial commission are “progressing well,” Argyle municipal councillors were told last week during their regular monthly meeting.

The legal work regarding the acquisition of the Pubnico Head Medical Center is “very close” to completion, council members were informed during the Sept. 9 session.

The transfer of ownership of the clinic to the industrial commission would make the three local municipal units, indirectly at least, owners of the facility, an arrangement similar to that involving the Yarmouth area’s municipal governments and the Harbour South Medical Clinic.

Once the legalities are addressed, the plan is to expand the Pubnico Head clinic, with the goal eventually of staffing it with more medical personnel.

The expectation is that work on the expansion could begin this fall.

In the spring the Municipality of Argyle received a letter from Dr. Jackie d’Eon, owner of the Pubnico Head Medical Center, requesting that the municipality purchase the facility.

She cited the overhead costs she faced – “at least 15 (per cent) higher than most of my peers” – saying the future of her clinic was in doubt under these circumstances. “It has become increasingly apparent to me,” she said in her letter to the municipality, “that without your help, I will have no choice but to seek another community that will support my devotion to medicine.”

She noted that the Municipality of Argyle “has witnessed first hand what happens to private clinics when physicians retire or relocate.” She pointed to the communities of Wedgeport and Tusket as “prime examples.”

She added, “Private clinics are a dying breed with hefty overheads that no longer make it attractive to new physicians.”

For the municipality, meanwhile, the situation has evolved into an opportunity to pursue its goal of developing a medical clinic in the Municipality of Argyle, an initiative intended to help recruit and retain physicians.

As council was told last week, what started out as a “small package” has become a bigger one.