ABOUT US

In a nutshell:

Established in 1976 to build the Mayne Island Health Centre, our non-profit association has been uniquely instrumental in — and critical to — the ongoing delivery of health care on Mayne for more than 45 years.

We work collaboratively with our medical team, Island Health, other key health care providers and Mayne Islanders to identify current and future needs, ensure our community has reasonable access to necessary and sustainable health care services and advocate for — and attract — additional complementary services.

We rely on community support and grants to fund operating expenses, new technologies, equipment and services not provided by Island Health, but beneficial to rural remote communities like ours, where in-place care is key to our residents’ well-being.

To complement that, our comprehensive education program promotes health and wellness and we work closely with Public Health to organize local COVID-19 and Influenza vaccination clinics.

For more information, go to:

MIHCA at a Glance

Who we are:

Incorporated as a non-profit society with charitable registration in 1975, the Mayne Island Health Centre Association (MIHCA) was originally formed to oversee the construction of the community Health Centre that opened in 1976.

MIHCA is comprised of an elected board of community volunteers focused on supporting access to appropriate, timely and sustainable health and wellness services on Mayne Island.

What we do:

First and foremost, we advocate on your behalf and we keep you informed.

Working with our medical team, Island Health and the community, we:

• identify current and future health care needs and the impacts of changing demographics an dynamics on our island
• investigate emerging technologies that may not be provided by Island Health but can enhance health care delivery in remote communities like ours
• seek grants to acquire new technologies and other equipment and furnishings and if needed, fund-raise to offset the costs
• sponsor and organize First Aid Training and other health and wellness education
• attract and engage complementary care providers
• advocate on behalf of our community’s health care needs
• co-ordinate Mayne’s whole community COVID-19 and Influenza vaccination clinics

While MIHCA has no involvement in the day-to-day operation of the Clinic in the Health Centre, we fund the ongoing operating costs and maintenance of several key components of its infrastructure. We also work to ensure our medical team has the technology and equipment needed to support the care they provide to the community — now and into the future.

Major tangible milestones since the Health Centre was built in 1976:

• an addition in 1996
• a second addition (fully-equipped emergency room) in 2017
• the acquisition and installation of an Electronic Medical Records System in 2013
• the acquisition of many additional life-saving AEDs around the island in 2017.

Over the years, we’ve also recognized the importance of providing health and wellness programs and our role has expanded to include sponsoring training and education that supports individual and community well-being.

What we don’t do:

We do not manage or maintain the Health Centre buildings or grounds. That’s the responsibility of the Mayne Island Improvement District (MIID). Mayne Island property owners pay an annual tax to the MIID to fund the continued maintenance and upkeep of the buildings, grounds and the Heliport.

But to be clear: That tax levy does not fund any of the equipment or technology within the Health Centre — or their costs of operation. Nor does that tax levy fund any of MIHCA’s other activities on behalf of the community. We rely on Mayne Islanders’ support for that.

And every acquisition we make to meet the technology, equipment and furnishing needs of the Health Centre stays in the Health Centre and through MIHCA, belongs to the community.

Planning for the future:

Remote island communities like ours are faced with many health care delivery challenges– including the frequency with which we have to leave our island for health care services.

To that end, we recently conducted a community-wide survey to get a sense of how our demographics and dynamics are changing, and how those changes will affect our future direction to make sure it’s aligned with the community’s.

One of MIHCA’s goals is to reduce the frequency of off island-travel for health services that could be delivered cost-effectively, conveniently and efficiently here on Mayne.

The emergence of numerous new health-related technologies can facilitate that – technologies like Telehealth (remote specialist consultation over the Internet). As sophisticated health-related Apps become increasingly available,  so do well-respected  sources of information on the Internet.

We are already fortunate to have a robust health care system on Mayne and a continued focus on health and wellness learning and education will add to the well-being of individual islanders and our community as a whole.

 

 

 Mayne Island is part of the Southern Gulf Islands Local Health Area 414.

For details on Population and Demographics, Determinants of Health, Health Status, Health Service Use see the link below. This document represents data from 2018 – 2019 and was prepared and updated by Island Health.

SOUTHERNGULFISLANDS-414 Local Health Area Profile