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| By G. Michael Dobbs Managing Editor CHICOPEE Elected officials and Jay Breines, president of the Holyoke Health Center, gathered on Friday to announce that construction will begin within the next two weeks on the new Chicopee Health Center. Breines said the new health center, located next to the city library on Front Street, would be open on Oct. 1. Mayor Michael Bissonnette said that besides the construction of the facility, Holyoke Health Center would also undertake a campaign to make sure every one in Chicopee is covered by some form of health insurance, in line with the state mandate. The Chicopee Health Center will be a federally qualified health center. It provides health care to those who may have difficulty paying for it or be without insurance. The health center accepts plans such as Blue Cross/Blue Shield and is open to all potential patients, Breines emphasized. The Chicopee Health Center was described by both Breines and Bissonnette as a vehicle for collaboration. Both men spoke of possible programs with the Elms College nursing program and with the city's senior center. The almost $5 million project will take the empty shell of the former grocery building and transform it into a modern medical facility offering general medicine, mental health services and dentistry. Earlier this year, Breines said that part of the facility would be rented to an outside retailer, such as a pharmacy. He said Friday the plans for the health center have expanded and there probably won't be any outside tenants. There will be a pharmacy, however, as the Holyoke location recently purchased it pharmacy and will be expanding it. Because of its status as a federally qualified health center, the drugs sold at its pharmacy will be bought in Canada at substantially lowered prices, Breines said. The office opened by the Holyoke Health Center on Exchange Street several years ago now sees 3,000 patients a year, Breines said. He anticipates the number seen by the new center will be much larger. The center will employ about 50 people when it opens and that number should grow with the number of patients. "This is an important watershed moment for the people who live in our community, Bissonnette said. |