The Altona and District Health Care Board has made some changes to its lease agreement with Altona clinic physicians.

In the past, the health care board, which owns and operates the clinic building, would negotiate rental agreements with each individual doctor practicing at the clinic.

Altona CAO Dan Gagne says that arrangement created some challenges over time.

"What the board decided to do was change that situation so that they would only have to deal with one tenant. So now, the Altona Clinic itself or the practice, which is incorporated, will be the sole tenant that the health board deals with. That basically simplifies the relationship."

The new agreement will also pull the board out of the business of recruiting physicians to the clinic. Instead, that task will be carried out by the clinic physicians and administration staff.

"This way the health board will go back to being only a landlord ... while the clinic, which is best suited for recruitment, will find individuals to join them in the practice."

The new lease agreement simplifies relationships and puts the particular responsibilities of both parties where they need to be, according to Gagne.

He adds the new arrangement has received the full support of local physicians.