Fewer 911 calls to Surrey supportive housing building after launch of on-site clinic

British Columbia’s first urban community paramedicine clinic is making a tangible difference for residents in a supportive housing building in Surrey, B.C., according to its operators.

Paramedics began making weekly trips to the Community Paramedicine at Clinic Program, at the Ted Kuhn Towers, nearly two years ago to discuss residents’ health-care needs, treat them or refer them to other resources.

Options Community Services said that between Dec. 2021 and Dec. 2022, the towers also had about 10 fewer 911 calls per month, compared to before the clinic’s opening — a reduction of 38 per cent.

That has resulted in estimated cost savings of $450,000 to the health-care system, research from McMaster University has found.

“We have the repeating customers that are coming through, diverging them from ER usage and also being able to help them with their primary care concerns without having to go to other clinics or the hospital,” said Neil Arao of Options Community Services in an interview.

“We’ve noticed that there’s been people aging in place, so there’s an onset of new chronic diseases that they have … so having that in-house has been a huge success.”

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More than 460 people live in Ted Kuhn Towers, which supports low-income residents facing multiple barriers or at risk of homelessness. Options Community Services offers a variety of supports, helping connect them to childcare, jobs, mental health and addictions programs, immigrant services, and more if needed.

The paramedics visit the site on Wednesdays.

Arao said some of the towers’ tenants have said that clinic is the first opportunity they’ve had to access the health-care system with someone they trust, who returns every week.

“This has been really, really encouraging to build that relationship and trust,” he said.

The clinic has also partnered with a pharmacy to provide flu vaccines this season, seven days per week, and to ensure residents who need medication have it and aren’t missing their doses.

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BC Emergency Health Services is a partner in the clinic as is McMaster University’s Department of Family Medicine.

Jasprit Khandal, a paramedic public information officer for BCEHS, said the team is examining options for expanding the clinic program to other parts of the province. Community paramedics have been in place since 2016, she added, but they’ve generally been stationed in rural and remote areas that have reduced access to the health-care system and higher need for house calls.

“Resources would be something we’d evaluate as well, so definitely when there’s success in programs, things are reevaluated and the ideal is to have more resources put into place for programs like this,” Khandal said.