As many of you know, Stonegate CHC sustained major water damage in early September caused by a break in our sprinkler system. Our entire basement was damaged and has been closed to us since September 3rd. We are told that it will take up to six months to repair the basement.
We were able to repurpose several rooms on the main level of the Health Centre to become 6 examtreatment spaces and now have approval to proceed to convert other spaces to four additional examtreatment rooms. Clients using the care of our physicians, nurse practitioners, nurses, dietitian, chiropodist, diabetes team and asthma educator will continue to receive their care at the Health Centre at 150 Berry Road. Our dental clinic is fully operational at this location.
While we don't have enough spaces to operate a full capacity until the first floor renovations are complete, we are seeing clients for the full hours of our normal operations.
When we build back the lower level, two large rooms will be constructed allowing programs and the Health Promotion team to return to the Health Centre. This return is expected to be before the end of April, 2015.
Temporary Relocation of Group Programs and Counselling - 1243 Islington Avenue, Suite 800
The Health Promotion team and all group programs will be temporarily relocated to 1243 Islington, Suite 800 – this is just north of Bloor Street and steps from the Islington subway station exit on the east side of Islington.
Our Counselling, Community Food Programs and our Health Promotion Team will be moving to that location. All of the programs that are currently running in our program room at 150 Berry Road will move to this location in mid November.
Many of our Early Years Programs and afterschool programs will continue to operate out of Christ Church St. James Church, St. Mark’s School and Parklawn School.
The phone number will remain the same – 416-231-7070 – and our program calendar will be published on our website.
We will do our best to address the barriers the new location creates for some local participants. Clients facing barriers to accessing services at our Islington site should identify those barriers to staff they are most comfortable talking to, so our team can work to eliminate them as best we can. Programs will return to Stonegate CHC in 4 - 6 months, likely by April 2015.
Development of Stonegate Plaza Lands
Regarding the development, VanDyk has shared the following concept drawings.
VanDyk posts updates at http://blog.vandyk.com/tag/etobicoke/ They have applied for site plan approval – details are published on the City’s website: http://app.toronto.ca/DevelopmentApplications/associatedApplicationsList.do?action=init&folderRsn=3592532 . Currently their estimate for the completion of the first building that is planned to house Stonegate CHC is fall of 2016.
We continue to work through the Capital approval process with the Ministry of Health and the Toronto Central Local Health Integration Network (our operations funder). This process is slow and challenging, but we have the full support of our MPP Peter Milczyn. A major breakthrough was achieved last week, when our operating funder – the TC-LHIN agreed to support an increase in our budget to afford the costs of having a larger, appropriately sized Community Health Centre.
Stonegate CHC Board of Directors is planning to organize a community meeting in early December to update the community. We have heard from some community members that they are looking for a forum to discuss the changes underway in this neighbourhood.
As soon as the dates are confirmed, we will advertise through electronic and print methods.