Sunday, February 3, 2019 ~ ESQUIMALT.
~ West Shore Voice News
“We’re going around to developers asking them to consider building medical office space,” says Esquimalt Mayor Barb Desjardins.
This is to keep pace with needs of Esquimalt residents, says Desjardins who is now 10 years the mayor in a municipality where also many west shore residents head through or to work each day.
Desjardins hopes that an Urgent Primary Care Center is earmarked by the provincial government for Esquimalt.
On January 16, Health Minister Adrian Dix confirmed that Nanaimo is next on the list in BC For an Urgent Primary Care Centre (no specific construction or opening date was given).
“Once established, the Urgent Primary Care Centre in Nanaimo will connect patients with ongoing primary healthcare delivered by a team of professionals, as well as provide a same-day care alternative to waiting in the emergency department,” said Dix during the by-election campaign in Nanaimo.
MLA for Esquimalt-Metchosin, Mitzi Dean, says the government is working with the South Island Division of Family Practice in rolling out the primary care network. “That is being done strategically,” she told West Shore Voice News this week.
“Esquimalt doctors used to be with the Victoria division and now have moved to the south island division. There’s a lot of activity in assessing what the situation is in Esquimalt and making sure they are integrated into the whole strategy for South Island Division,” said Dean. “They have already been meeting – we are intending to employ team-based care,” she said. A government staff person has been put into the Esquimalt doctor’s office (which is also a walk-in clinic) to help with assessment.
“After 16 years of BC Liberal choices that hurt healthcare in Nanaimo, John Horgan’s government is turning things around,” said now Nanaimo MLA-elect Sheila Malcolmson (during the campaign).