CASTINE, Maine (WGME) — The health care desert in rural Maine may be widening as another clinic closes its doors.
Northern Light Health announced it is moving its primary care out of Castine.
Northern Light says this is due to staffing shortages and staff and patients will now be transferred to the facility in Blue Hill, which is more than half an hour away.
The Castine Community Health Board, which owns the building the clinic operates out of, began taking preemptive steps last fall.
“The hospital board’s working really hard to try to keep family practice or family medicine in town, whether it’s a different type of model or somehow getting creative on the funding,” said Mike Murnik, the chief marketing officer for Northern Light Blue Hill.
One option now being considered is direct primary care, a model that operates outside the traditional insurance system.
In the meantime, the board is speeding up its timeline to find a solution given the closure is set for the end of next month.
