November 2, 2009

Dear Clients of Somerset West Community Health Centre,

As a result of the increased cases of H1N1 and the additional pressure this has placed on our health care system, we have had to make major changes to the services normally offered to you and these changes will be in place for the next two to three weeks.

Dr. Isra Levy, the Chief Medical Officer of Health for Ottawa has designated SWCHC as a Flu Assessment Centre. This means that all non-urgent visits will be cancelled. We will continue to offer only the following services:

• Urgent Primary Care from 8:00 am -11:00 am Mon-Friday
• Health Services Walk-In from 10:00 am - 4:30 pm Mon-Friday
• Social Services Walk-In from 1:00- 4:30 pm Mon-Friday

Other than these services, we will be providing assessments for persons with symptoms of influenza who feel they need medical attention. This includes persons with the following symptoms:

• fever
• cough
• muscle aches
• a sore throat
• fatigue
• weakness
• loss of appetite

All persons entering the Centre will be screened. If you feel sick and have flu like symptoms, we will ask you to wear a mask.

We realize the severe impact cancelling so many of our services will have on you and apologize for this inconvenience. These are exceptional times and currently the present health care system needs our help to deal with the huge increase in demand for flu assessment services by the general public.

Our goal for the Flu Assessment Centre is to provide you with quality treatment and timely access to services which prevents you or a loved one from having to go to the emergency department where wait times are growing daily.

We will resume normal services again as soon as Ottawa Public Health informs us that we are no longer required to operate as a Flu Assessment Centre.

Sincerely,

Jack McCarthy

Executive Director

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