Albany Medical moves to bigger facility
One of East York’s oldest medical facilities, the Albany Medical Clinic, has a new location — and a new pharmacy, to boot.
The ribbon-cutting ceremony took place June 2, celebrating the Broadview and Danforth area facility and its new in-house Rexall Pharmacy.
The reason for the nearly 65-year-old clinic’s move was simple, says James Higginson-Rollins, the clinic’s managing director.
“There’s no doubt about it, we needed more space,” he said. “We had far outgrown the capacity of our old building and the only way we could continue to grow and handle our patients’ growth was to add more space.”
Founded by four physicians who all served with the Canadian Army Medical Corps in the Second World War, the clinic was founded on the principle of providing a wide range of services to as many people as possible. And Higginson-Rollins says today’s facility, which
houses 27 family physicians and over 35 specialists, is in keeping with the original idea.
“The walk-in clinic on the first floor is open 365 days a year. Christmas, New Year’s, every holiday, absolutely,” he said. “We see 1,000 patients a day in this clinic. It’s not how many names you have on the wall, it’s how many patients you take care of.”
The 3,902 square-metre facility is almost twice the size of the old clinic. Higginson-Rollins says this allows more access for more people.
“We’re a big doctor’s office – a super-sized doctor’s office,” he said. “It’s not just the number of doctors, but the volume of patients you take care of. There are other clinics that may have a few more doctors, but they don’t all work full-time.”
With the increase in size and extended hours, the clinic is also a good solution for people who already have their own family doctors, but need more urgent care, Higginson-Rollins added.
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