The Saint-Isidore Community Health Centre, which opened in March 2010, is the fruit of collaboration among the Coopérative Les Fondateurs ltée, the Department of Health, and Vitalité Health Network. The Community Health Centre rents a building from the Co-op.
Historical highlights
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The Coopérative Les Fondateurs ltée is a co-operative association incorporated under the Co-operative Associations Act of New Brunswick. It obtained its charter on July 13, 2005. Its head office is in Saint-Isidore.
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This user-owned co-operative enterprise provides:
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Medical and nursing services;
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Certain treatments, advice, and front-line services;
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Health promotion and disease prevention services through programs, workshops, and presentations on healthy lifestyle habits, diet and physical activity.
Mission of the Cooperative
The Coopérative Les Fondateurs ltée is a non-profit co-operative formed to promote its members’ wellbeing through highly professional prevention and treatment services.
Strategic vision of the Cooperative
The Coopérative Les Fondateurs ltée’s users take full responsibility for their individual and collective health.
Based on an analysis done in 2005 for the Co-operatives Secretariat and the Community Economic Development Technical Assistance Program suggesting a collaborative approach between the health co-operative and the public system, the co-operative contacted the Department of Health to draw up a cooperation agreement that would implement a joint assistance and support strategy for the Saint-Isidore initiative.
In February 2008, the Minister of Health announced that a new community health centre would be set up in Saint-Isidore as part of the initiatives to improve access to primary health care as described in The Provincial Health Plan 2008-2012.
The Saint-Isidore Community Health Centre’s goal is to concentrate its services on prevention, health promotion, and chronic disease management. It also aims to reduce wait times at the Tracadie-Sheila Hospital and improve access to health services for residents of Saint-Isidore and surrounding communities. The Saint-Isidore Community Health Centre team consists of a nurse practitioner at the facility three days a week, as well as a nurse and a support employee who are there full-time. The team is supported by the interdisciplinary team from the Enfant-Jésus RHSJ† Hospital in Caraquet. Staff at the Community Health Centre work closely with physicians in the region.
The cooperatives’ members pay annual membership fees and enjoy exclusive privileges. However, the current cooperation agreement between the Department of Health and Vitalité Health Network respects the principle of universal access to health services and care in the Canadian public health system. Members and non-members alike have the same access to Network services.
