By Eric Bourque
THE VANGUARD
NovaNewsNow.com
As of last Thursday morning, wireless Internet was the last main thing left to set up for a new medical clinic in Yarmouth County.
Located at the site of the old Pubnico Head Medical Center, the facility has two local physicians and a nurse practitioner confirmed as occupants and can accommodate two more doctors.
The hope was to move the two physicians in time to have them up and running in the new facility by Aug. 30, with the nurse practitioner joining them maybe a week or so later, although the precise date was uncertain, a project spokesman said.
The plan had been for the new building to be in operation by now, but various factors pushed the opening back.
The facility – to be known as the Centre de santé A.M. Clark Medical Centre (in memory of Dr. Sandy Clark) – is about twice the size of the old one.
Initially the idea had been to expand the existing structure, but it was determined that constructing a new one was a better option.
Federal funding for the project -- $569,000 – was announced last September.
The three local municipal units were combining to contribute $567,000.
The clinic’s previous owner – Dr. Jackie d’Eon, one of the physicians who will work out of the new facility – approached the Municipality of Argyle in the spring of 2008 asking the municipality to consider purchasing the building.
A few months later it was announced that an agreement had been reached that would have the Yarmouth Area Industrial Commission assume ownership of the facility.
The new medical centre is to be similar to the Harbour South Medical Clinic in Yarmouth, another industrial commission project.
Dr. Terry Rohland will be moving his practice to the new clinic, where the medical personnel also will include nurse practitioner Duana d’Entremont.
The facility likely will be open for a few weeks before an official opening is held.
Dr. Clark – in whose memory the facility will be named – died in late 2009 after 27 years of practice in the Pubnico area.
The municipality had received numerous suggested names for the new building.
There were about three dozen of them on a list that was part of the agenda of a meeting of Argyle municipal council in late June.
