A West Kelowna medical centre is set to become more accessible to the community.
Starting Dec. 15, the urgent and primary care facility in downtown Westbank will be open from 11:30 a.m. until 8:30 p.m. seven days a week, Luke Brimmage, Interior Health’s interim director of primary care, said in an update to West Kelowna city council. Previously, it was only available for urgent care needs from 4:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
The centre provides care for non-life-threatening injuries that require immediate treatment, like sprains, broken bones or minor bleeding, and also rapid access to mental health services.
Brimmage said while the facility is relatively new, it’s helped 3,600 new patients access the services of urgent care and about 35 to 37 patients a month are connected to nurse practitioners at the primary care centre.
News of the extended hours was welcomed by city council members, who have not only heard about the struggles facing residents in need of medical care but have also experienced them themselves.
“With many walk-in clinics in West Kelowna not open on the weekends anymore, there’s a huge weekend demand for services on this side of the bridge,” Coun. Rick de Jong said.
He said he learned the hard way that this summer and early fall, there was only one doctor on staff with a nurse practitioner. For a prescription renewal, the lack of doctor availability and options caused him a wait of four and a half hours.
Get weekly health news
“I think that’s happening a lot and I’m wondering, what can be done about that?” he said.
Brimmage explained that the reason for increasing the hours is not only to meet the demand and needs of the community, but also to encourage the recruitment of physicians, practitioners and clinicians to the site.
“With expanded hours what we’ve already heard from the physicians that work there and some in the community is, once those hours open up during the day, there will be more of an appetite to join the team at the site, and that includes the weekends and holidays as well,” Brimmage said.
“The other part of that is we’re all experiencing, throughout the province, a shortage of physicians when it comes to recruitment. It’s a significant issue for everybody right now.”
To address that, Brimmage said there are considerable recruitment efforts underway.
“That’s a long-term goal, unfortunately,” Brimmage said.
In addition, Interior Health is increasing its nursing staff and access to the pharmacies and pharmaceutical team, he said.
Comments