Urgent and primary care centre opens in Vernon

Nov 12, 2019 | 11:14 AM

Vernon is the site for the third urgent and primary care centre in the B.C. Interior.

Health Minister Adrian Dix said the Vernon Urgent and Primary Care Centre, which is already open and being operated by Interior Health in partnership with the Shuswap North Okanagan Division of Family Practice, will help connect more people with the health care they need, when they need it.

“By increasing the number of publicly funded health care professionals in the community, thousands of people who currently lack a primary care provider will benefit from increased access to same-day appointments for urgent needs, ongoing primary care and better longitudinal care into the future.”

At this point, the centre is located in the Downtown Primary Care Clinic at 3306A 32nd Avenue (across from Beach Radio), but will move to a new permanent location in early 2020.

The centre will offer urgent and primary care services, and work to connect patients without a family doctor to a regular physician or nurse practitioner.

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Primary care is the day-to-day health care given by a health-care provider.

Urgent primary care is the care that people need within 12 to 24 hours, for conditions such as sprains, urinary problems, ear infections, minor cuts or burns.

The clinic will operate seven days a week, including evenings, weekends and statutory holidays.

Dix told the media many resident doctors prefer alternate payments than fee-for-service which he says is a key part to hiring new doctors to use at the facility.

“It underlines why we’re proceeding in Vernon, why this was a high priority area. After Kamloops and Kelowna, Vernon was our third location because I think Vernon needs responses like this to primary care,” Dix said.

He added it’s a completely different model to a walk-in clinic, calling it “team-based care,” where everyone who comes in will be attached to a primary care provider such as a physician or health care practitioner.

“It’s team-based care, so it’s a team of people providing services. This is particularly important for the many people struggling with issues around mental health and addictions. The open hours are important. It’s important that people aren’t turned away, and they won’t be turned away here, which sometimes happens when people reach their maximums at walk-in clinics. We’ll also have rapid access to diagnostic imaging and laboratory services, and a connection both to attachment, and to the rest of the health care system, so this is a significant change,” Dix told the media.

The minister says the facility will recruit general practitioners, nurse practitioners, nurses, social workers and mental health and substance use clinicians to treat patients in Vernon.

“It underlines why we’re proceeding in Vernon, why this was a high priority area. After Kamloops and Kelowna, Vernon was our third location because Vernon, I think, needs responses like this to primary care.” Health Minister Adrian Dix.

The annual operating cost of the centre will be approximately $3.5 million.

Using a team-based care approach, the centre will provide an expected 42,000 additional patient visits per year once fully operational.

It’s the thirteenth urgent and primary care centre to be announced under the government’s primary care strategy and the third in the Interior Health authority region.

The first is located in Kamloops and has served more than 10,320 patient visits since opening on June 12, 2018.

The Kelowna Urgent Primary Care Centre is expected to start seeing patients late December 2019.

by Pete McIntyre

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