By Pete McIntyre

Vernon health care centre tracks visits

Jan 10, 2020 | 5:15 AM

Vernon’s urgent primary care centre (UPCC) has received close to 1,300 visits since starting operations a few months ago, according B.C.’s Health Ministry.

“Since opening in October, the Vernon UPCC has had 1,274 patient visits and the Kamloops UPCC, which started operating in June 2018, has had 20,810 patient visits,” stated a news release from the ministry.

The centre is located on 32nd Avenue downtown, and provides team-based day-to-day health care.

There are now 14 of the government-funded facilities in B.C, with the latest opening on Harvey Avenue in Kelowna Thursday.

The centres provide urgent primary care for residents by a team of health-care providers, including doctors, nurse practitioners, nurses, social workers and office staff.

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The B.C. government says the centres serve two purposes:

– to provide care for people with non-life-threatening conditions who need to see a health-care provider within 12 to 24 hours, but don’t require an emergency department and who do not have or cannot access their family practitioner;

– to help attach patients to a regular primary-care provider.

by Pete McIntyre

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