Some unexpected news came out of Southern Maine Health Care last week. Hospital officials told the Journal Tribune June 18 that the Waterboro Walk-in Clinic would be closing temporarily, effective the next day.
The closure is due to a shortage of providers, and in particular, two recent resignations among the providers who staff the site, who are typically either nurse practitioners or physician assistants, SMHC President Ed McGeachey said last week. He said that the goal would be to re-open within the next two to three months.
What is unsettling, however, is that in the same breath, the hospital announced it is looking to open another walk-in clinic in Kennebunk, even though it isn’t able to staff the Waterboro site sufficiently.
Kennebunk is a much shorter distance from SMHC’s Saco Walk-in Clinic and the emergency room at the Biddeford hospital, but the rural towns served by the Waterboro clinic can be upwards of an hour’s drive away from Saco and Biddeford, when you get out to towns on the western border of the county and the state.
McGeachey said Southern Maine Health Care employs about 85 nurse practitioners and physicians assistants ”“ who typically staff walk-in clinics ”“ but many are not comfortable in the fast-paced setting of such clinics. To which the obvious answer seems to be: tough luck.
People who work for companies with several sites are often required to travel to different offices or other locations to perform their duties, and the same should be true for SMHC. If the hospital needs more help in Waterboro, all applicable employees ”“ within reason ”“ should be assigned shifts to help keep the site staffed and open. Waterboro, after all, is in York County, and a provider who may normally work in Sanford, Biddeford, Saco or Kennebunk, can easily make the drive to the Waterboro clinic ”“ which is just 14 miles from SMHC’s Biddeford Medical Center.
McGeachey assured patients, through the interview with the newspaper as well as in an advertisement in Wednesday’s Journal Tribune, that the Waterboro Walk-in Clinic would be up and running as soon as possible. He told the paper, “I’m upset we had to do this. We know (the clinic) really serves people. ”¦ We’re committed to getting it up and going again and making it work.”
We hope this holds true, ad the center certainly does serve the people of Waterboro and western York County, a region that is short on such services. Many people can be served by walk-in clinics for a range of ailments, keeping them out of the emergency room but getting them the care they need.
That need is clear, and while there may certainly be a need in the Kennebunk area as well, we hope Waterboro remains the priority, and SMHC leaders put a plan in place to keep all of its sites staffed as fully as possible in the future to avoid having to make a temporary closure such as this.
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Today’s editorial was written by City Editor Robyn Burnham Rousseau on behalf of the Journal Tribune Editorial Board. Questions? Comments? Contact Managing Editor Kristen Schulze Muszynski by calling 282-1535, ext. 322, or via email at kristenm@journaltribune.com.
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