With 18 new vehicles, residents in rural parts of Chatham-Kent and Windsor-Essex will now have better access to healthcare.
The Erie St. Clair LHIN recently spent $1-million on the new buses and vans, which replaces older ones and adds more to the fleet.
Board Chair Martin Girash says this helps bring healthcare into the 21st century. "We do have home care services for those who absolutely can't travel, but efficiently we (try to) get people to a certain place where there can be a concentration of services," says Girash. "Transportation becomes a very important component of modern healthcare."
This is phase one of the transportation plan and brings the total number of patient vehicles to 45 across the Erie St. Clair LHIN. The entire fleet was also re-branded as CareLink, giving patients one telephone number (1-855-728-1433) to call to access transportation from Sarnia-Lambton, Chatham-Kent and Windsor-Essex.