Samaritan Centre nurse helps Sudbury's poor with health care

The homeless and low income population in Sudbury has a new resource for their health, now that a full-time registered nurse has been hired to work out of the Samaritan Centre's Corner Clinic.

Mathieu Chartrand, who started at the end of February, said he sometimes serves as a first-stop for patients.

"If it's an issue that can wait, I can make an appointment with the nurse practitioner or the doctor, he said.

And if they need a prescription, I can redirect them to a walk-in clinic instead of the emergency room."

Chartrand said he hopes to see 25 patients a week for hour-long consultations.

His position was created for a one-year term with funding from the North East Local Health Integration Network and Le Centre de Sante Communautaire.

Samaritan Centre client John McCoshen has visited Chartrand more than a dozen times.

"He helps me with my problems, if I need to see a nurse, he said. If there's somebody there every day it makes it a lot better."

McCoshen said he often neglects his healthbecause of long lineups in the hospital emergency room or walk in clinics and now, he doesnt have to.

Chartrand said the patients he sees are different than at any other clinic in the city.

"Because we have a lot of mental health issues, we'll see different wounds related to drug use. We'll see alcoholism, he said.

[Well see people about] foot care because people don't take care and don't have any follow-ups with that."