Ft. St. John, B.C. - Northern Health will hold the grand opening of a new health care space in Fort St. John today at 10011 – 96^th Street.

The new space features a large meeting room for group medical appointments, a seniors’ wellness office, an accessible washroom, and a medical examination room.

“This space is important because we’re now engaging in many Care North initiatives such as the Frail Elderly Collaborative, chronic disease management,, mental health initiatives, and d group medical appointments” says Mary Augustine, care North Coordinator with Northern Health.

The new space has also been hosting group appointments for diabetes, hypertension depression, menopause and over-50 health screening. “Group medical appointments are driven by patient needs and questions, we have health professionals there as facilitators and to answer questions, but patients take the lead.  Once we even had a session that started out for diabetes but turned into an arthritis session because that’s where the participants went with it.”

Five doctors are currently participating in regularly scheduled group medical appointments in Fort St. John, that up from the one physician who was involved when the concept was first introduced. Three more doctors are interested in taking part.