Wednesday, April 3, 2019
~ West Shore Voice News
A Medical Arts Urgent and Primary Care Centre in Nanaimo will give people in the region increased access to team-based primary care, it was announced today April 3 by the Province, together with local partners.
“This urgent and primary-care centre is a real solution that will increase and improve access to care including on evenings and weekends, using a team-based care solution and supporting attachment of patients who need a primary-care provider,” said Adrian Dix, Minister of Health.
“We know that many people in Nanaimo find it difficult to receive the adequate, quality health-care services they need. More than 15,500 people in the region do not have a primary-care provider and for those who do, same-day access is often impossible to get.”
The new Medical Arts Urgent and Primary Care Centre in Nanaimo on South Terminal Avenue in the Port Place mall will be open seven days a week to support up to 25,000 additional patient visits per year.
This is the seventh urgent and primary-care centre (UPCC) to be announced in BC under the government’s primary-care strategy and the second to open on Vancouver Island. The seven current centres (operating or under construction) are in Burnaby, Nanaimo, Kamloops, Quesnel, Westshore (Langford), Surrey and Vancouver Downtown/Westend.
“We continue to work to establish at least two urgent primary care centres in each health authority, with more gradually added in communities where there is an identified need,” said a BC Ministry of Health representative today. “More details and locations will be announced in the future.”
Esquimalt is hoping they will be chosen for a similar health care facility here on the island; an assessment process is underway for that, it was confirmed by the MLA for the area, Mitzi Dean (Esquimalt-Metchosin) a few months ago.
Sooke appears to be cobbling together a hybrid, with a local non-profit working to collaborate with the present medical centre that is owned and operated by a group of physicians.
The Westshore Urgent and Primary Care Centre in Langford opened in November 2018, in recognizing about 30,000 people in the west shore region not ‘being attached to a family physician’; Langford is assisting with addressing that need by offering tax incentives to private health care offices. About 7,500 people have accessed the Westshore Urgent and Primary Care Centre since it opened.
In collaboration with Island Health and the Medical Arts Centre, the Province is expanding the existing Medical Arts Centre clinic to provide wraparound team-based care to people of Nanaimo and surrounding communities. This will include adding to the current staffing complement, which consists of doctors, licensed practical nurses and a nurse practitioner. The overall goal is to recruit 200 family doctors and 200 nurse practitioners and hire 50 clinical pharmacists.
It is expected that there will be more than 14 new full-time equivalent health-care providers, including four doctors, in addition to registered nurses, mental-health and substance-use clinicians, social workers, a pharmacist and medical office staff. The annual incremental operating cost of the centre will be approximately $2.7 million.
Using this team-based approach, the urgent and primary-care centre will offer additional same-day appointments and extended hours of operation, and will provide focused rapid access and coordinated services for frail seniors and people in need of mild to moderate mental-health and substance-use treatment. The centre will work with the Nanaimo Division of Family Practice and Island Health to facilitate attachment for residents seeking a patient-centered primary-care provider. The centre is expected to offer the full range of services in early June 2019.
“Team-based care that addresses the needs of the community will soon become the pillar of our new primary-care system, and it will be how everyone in Nanaimo and across the province access the everyday health care they need,” said Dix. “The urgent and primary-care centre in Nanaimo is a first step for the community, and we have the vision to expand and transform this centre into a full primary-care network in the future.”
Located on South Terminal Avenue in the Port Place mall, the Medical Arts Urgent and Primary Care Centre will be open seven days a week to support up to 25,000 additional patient visits per year.