News Archive
2023-06-27 - MASKING and SECURE MESSAGING updates
Dear Patients,
Please note that we have updated our clinic masking policies to be in line with other community health care facilities.
If you have a fever, cough, cold or flu symtoms, and/or gastrointestinal symptoms such as vomiting and/or diarrhea, you MUST wear a mask BEFORE entering the clinic.
If you do not have the listed symptoms, wearing a mask is OPTIONAL.
Also be advised that Ironoak Medical is trialling a new secure messaging system powered by Ocean. Some of you may have seen these emails sent to you with messages from your physician over the last few weeks. Ocean also lets us send appointment reminders, requisitions, questionnaires, and items from your medical records far more easily and reliably than Wellx. In the next few weeks we hope to open online appointment booking as well!
Note that to access Ocean messages or features you will need to verify your identity by entering your date of birth.
Generally you will be able to reply to messages you get from the clinic once you read them. If that isn’t working - or if you want to get in touch with us about a non-urgent issue - please use the link on our website to Send a Secure Message.
You will need to confirm that you are a patient by entering your health card number and date of birth, and then you will be able to securely send the clinic a message (with attachments) over the Ocean platform.
You may also continue to use the wellx system at this time. Note that it may take several days for staff to get to Wellx or Ocean messages, so for any urgent matters, please continue to PHONE the clinic at 905-338-0813.
Have a wonderful summer!
2023-05-29 - Walk-in Clinics on (some) Saturdays!
Dear Patients,
Ironoak Medical clinic is pleased to announce a pilot initiative: We will be open for Walk-In/Urgent Care visits on 2 Saturdays each month starting this coming Saturday, June 3, providing walk-in medical services to the community from 9am - noon. This clinic would be open to the general public, not just for our family practice patients.
Note that this clinc would be in addition to the rotating clinic provided by our physician group, which our patients can also access (see the After-Hours Clinic details on our website).
We will be open 9am - 12 noon for walk-in visits on:
June 3, 2023
June 17, 2023
July 8, 2023
(July 29, 2023 - FHO after hours clinic 9am - 3pm - FHO patients only)
2023-05-06 - EMR Upgrades and funding request
Dear Patients,
Many of you have had the opportunity to visit us at our new location in the last month. We hope to be able to see all of you soon in our modern facilities!
It's certainly been a long multi-year project to build the new clinic space. We are continuing our commitment to patient care with upgrades to our Electronic Medical Record system next week, and appreciate your understanding as our staff get used to the new system and work out all the ghosts in the machine.
One of the technologies that continue to get praise from patients is our option for secure e-mail (i.e. Wellx or Ocean messages) between you and your physician or support staff. Soon, we plan to add other tools to be able to more easily send medical questionnaires related to your visit securely to your computer or mobile device, and allow online booking, should you prefer that option.
Unfortunately as you may know there is next to no funding for these initiatives from the Ministry of Health. Specifically, secure messaging such as Wellx consultations between you and your physician are not covered by OHIP, meaning your doctor cannot bill OHIP for their time spent responding to your questions on the platform. Additionally, the clinic bears the subscription costs of the messaging platform.
If you find being able to communicate electronically with your physician valuable and have the means, please consider supporting the clinic with a financial donation to offset the cost of providing these services to all our patients. These may be sent via Interac e-transfer to info@ironoakmedical.ca or in person at our location:
Ironoak Medical Clinic
112 - 1670 North Service Rd E
Oakville, Ontario. L6H 7G3
You can also support the clinic and all Ontarians by writing to your MPP to ask that secure messaging with one's physician become a service covered by OHIP.
Thank you all for your ongoing support.
Dr. Voros, Dr. Downie, Dr. Healy, Dr. Barone and Ironoak Staff
2023-04-16 - COVID-19 Boosters for high-risk individuals
The Ministry of Health has updated their guidance for vaccinations to protect against COVID-19. In brief:
High Risk individuals (i.e. aged 65 or older, residents of long-term care, seniors' or congregate care facilities, pregnant individuals, people aged 18 years and older who are moderately to severely immunocompromised, and persons aged 55 or older who are First Nations and members of their households) are advised to get a COVID-19 booster this spring if it has been at least 6 months since their last vaccine dose or confirmed COVID-19 infection.
People not in this group are advised to get a booster dose if they are age 5 or older and have not had one since September 1, 2022.
Children under 5 or those who are not high risk and have received a bivalent booster already are not eligible for another booster dose at this time.
Guidance may be updated again in the fall.
2023-04-01 - New Clinic Location!
As of April 1st, we have moved to our new, modern clinic location on North Service Road East (See Contact Page for full address & directions). We continue to provide comprehensive primary care to all of our patients, including an after hours clinic open to patients of the whole Family Health Organization every Thursday evening from 5pm - 7:30pm. We also have an affiliated Pharmacy, Ironoak Pharmacy, co-located with our clinic for your convenience.
We look forward to seeing you soon!