{"id":711089,"date":"2026-06-03T00:11:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T00:11:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/711089\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T00:11:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T00:11:12","slug":"toronto-library-uhn-offer-mobile-health-clinic-to-reach-most-vulnerable-toronto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/711089\/","title":{"rendered":"Toronto library, UHN offer mobile health clinic to reach most vulnerable – Toronto"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new mobile health clinic<\/a> is working to increase public access to primary care in Toronto, and residents will start seeing them set up shop at public library locations across the city.<\/p>\n

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The new collaboration between University Health Network and the Toronto Public Library<\/a> is aimed at helping people get the help they need, especially for those who are vulnerable like the homeless.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are thousands of people in the city having challenges to access primary care, basic health-care supports, social care and so what we saw is that we need to be moving towards meeting people where they\u2019re at as a health system,\u201d\u00a0 said Dr. Andrew Boozary, executive director of the Gattuso Centre for Social Medicine.<\/p>\n

A \u201cmyriad of folks\u201d have already been seen at the mobile centre, with Boozary saying they\u2019ve met with youth with different health or mental health challenges, refugees, newcomers and more.<\/p>\n

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The Sanderson branch of the library at Bathurst and Dundas streets was chosen as the initial pilot and Boozary said it was chosen because they were seeing a high level of health-care related calls, high rates of homelessness and higher rates of poverty. He added the proximity to Toronto Western Hospital was also a factor.<\/p>\n

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\u201cYou could throw a stone from the door of the Sanderson branch to the emergency department,\u201d he said. \u201cIt just seems so obvious for us to start with that partnership, again, given the neutral understanding of the needs of the community and also the proximity to some of the health-care resources as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

The program looks to provide \u201cuniversal health care,\u201d with a nurse practitioner, registered nurse and mobile health support representative on each team.<\/p>\n

As of Tuesday, one mobile health clinic is in operation, running five days a week at the Sanderson branch which was identified as \u201chigh need.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was a \u201cperfect opportunity\u201d for the public library, with adult services senior manager Aly Velji saying it could help vulnerable populations.<\/p>\n

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\u201cKnowing that a lot of people are really kind of struggling with finding care supports or even health-care supports in their areas or even not knowing where to go, the library is a great place for everyone to come and get those supports,\u201d said Velji. \u201cSo we\u2019ve been able to kind of help a lot of individuals who are finding barriers in accessing those services.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Sanderson branch was also chosen because a larger number of individuals accessed it that didn\u2019t have connection to other primary care supports, Velji said.<\/p>\n

Each van also provides more than just medical professionals, with Boozary showing Global News they contain all the medical supplies needed for examination and a full bed to do those exams.<\/p>\n

The aim is to operate as a full-scale primary care clinic, with the hopes of alleviating pressure on emergency rooms.<\/p>\n

No identification is required to access service, either, which Boozary said he\u2019s hopeful will help rebuild trust in communities and ensure the most vulnerable are able to feel comfortable in visiting.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really to be as inviting and open an experience and for those conversations to happen and, hopefully, ongoing conversations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u2014with files from Global News\u2019 Megan King.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new mobile health clinic is working to increase public access to primary care in Toronto, and residents…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":711090,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194291],"tags":[49,48,84,258058,3302,197867,258059],"class_list":["post-711089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-health","tag-mobile-health-clinic","tag-toronto","tag-toronto-public-library","tag-uhn"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=711089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711089\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/711090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=711089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=711089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=711089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}