Extended hours to help Rapid Access Addiction Medicine Clinic live up to name lead physician says

New extended hours of operation come into effect today at Sudbury's Rapid Access Addiction Medicine (or RAAM) clinic, with the goal of better serving the high number of people seeking help for drug or alcohol addiction.

The clinic, which is tucked in a subtle building on Pine Street, will now be open for walk-in clients Monday to Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

RAAM Clinics are for people without a family doctor who are seeking immediate treatment or guidance for their addictions. No referral is necessary.

Dr. Mike Franklyn, lead physician at the Sudbury facility, says people coming to the clinic often have no family or support system to rely on.

"These are complex patients who often haven't seen anybody before so it's hard to do that quickly," he says.

Franklyn says the aim is for doctors to spend at least an hour with new patients, and 30 minutes in follow-up visits.

The new hours come as RAAM hubs in other northeastern Ontario cities begin to open their doors.

The Algoma RAAM Clinic, located on East Street in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., opened last week.

The Cochrane-James Bay hub in Timmins is slated to officially open on Friday. North East Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) spokesperson Lara Bradley says that site has already seen its first patient.

She adds the North Bay RAAM, that was originally slated for April, will open shortly.

Putting the 'R' in 'rapid'

Since the Sudbury RAAM clinic opened as a pilot program in December 2015, the need has only increased, Franklyn says.

"We've been busy. We've had almost 400 clients visit us for everything from alcohol to opiate, cocaine and speed addiction."

"We've now gone from [being open] three days to five days per week, because we weren't meeting our objective of being 'R' for rapid,' he says.

The clinic has also expanded from three to five physicians, each one specialized in the field of addiction treatment.

"Statistically, most of what we're seeing is actually alcohol," Franklyn says.

He describes how the clinic's role of linking patients to available services has opened his eyes to how complicated the province's vast healthcare system can be.

Helping 'navigate' system

That's why the clinic has hired a patient navigator. Franklyn says this new worker will help "manoeuvre people through a very stressed [health care] system."

"One of the things you find in this area of medicine is that things are very siloed and fragmented, and there isn't nearly enough communication. So it's very hard to have your finger on the pulse of what waiting times are in [addiction treatment] programs across the province; what their criteria are, and that's why this is very important," he says.

Franklyn adds there can still be a waiting period between when patients walk in to when they're seen by the clinic's physicians. But the arrival of new doctors has already helped reduce that gap to three days or less.

"We've seen a drop in the last few weeks of 50 per cent in the wait times."

The Sudbury clinic also provides outreach to patients and healthcare providers in West Parry Sound, Manitoulin and Espanola.