Health officials in Simcoe Grey hope a new clinic for heart patients will keep residents out of the hospital.
The Georgian Bay Family Health Team is offering a program for those suffering from “heart failure” — specifically when the heart doesn’t effectively pump blood to the rest of the body.
Chair Doctor Sohail Gandhi says the ultimate goal is to keep people out of emergency rooms and hospital beds.
He says 50 thousand Canadians are newly diagnosed with heart failure each year and programs such as the one introduced in Collingwood could reduce hospital admissions by 50 to 85 per cent.
Patients suffering from this particular type of heart failure need to be referred to the program by their family physician.