The Quesnel Urgent Primary Care Centre will soon open to provide people a new option for same-day access to urgent primary care.

It will be the first Urgent Primary Care Centre (UPCC) in the North under the government’s primary health-care strategy.

“We know that for many individuals in this community same-day access to the care they need has been an issue and, as a result, they have had to resort to using the emergency department for what are really primary care health-care concerns,” said Adrian Dix, Minister of Health.  “This is about to change. The Quesnel Urgent Primary Care Centre will offer patients access to a team of health-care professionals to provide the immediate care they need, and also offer them ongoing care through referrals to a range of community services and supports.”

The urgent primary care centre will be staffed by a team of health professionals including doctors, a nurse practitioner and nurses. These health-care providers will be connected with a variety of services and programs, making it easier for patients to receive follow-up care and access to other services they may need. For example, the urgent primary care centre will make sure seniors are connected with appropriate community supports to help them safely stay at home longer.

The centre will be open on Oct. 31, 2018, and is located within G.R. Baker Memorial Hospital at the Community Health Services site at 543 Front St. The urgent primary care centre will provide appointments to patients including the frail elderly, people with mental-health and substance-use needs and patients unattached to a physician. The centre will be open from noon to 8 p.m., Monday to Friday, and 10 a.m.to 4 p.m. on weekends and statutory holidays. The Quesnel Urgent Primary Care Centre works in conjunction with Community Health Services, which is open 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. every day.

The new Quesnel Urgent Primary Care Centre was created through a partnership between the Ministry of Health, Northern Health, and the Northern Interior Division of Family Practice. An annualized budget of $1.1 million in funding has been allocated by the ministry to establish the centre.

Quotes:

Colleen Nyce, chair, Northern Health board –

“We’re pleased that the new Quesnel Urgent Primary Care centre is opening later this month to serve residents of Quesnel and the surrounding area. This new, co-located service will provide much-needed access to primary care for people in this region, including those, such as seniors, who may have specific care needs that require additional community supports.”

Dr. Dietrich Furstenburg, Northern Interior rural medical director –

“I’m looking forward to supporting the inter-professional team at the Urgent Primary Care Centre. Over the coming months, this service will support patients to access the care they require, close to home, and specific to their needs.”

Quick Facts:

• The Quesnel UPCC is the third of 10 centres announced by government as part of the Province’s new primary health-care strategy.
• The two other urgent primary care centres include the Surrey Urgent Primary Care Centre, announced on June 7, 2018, and the Kamloops Urgent Primary Care Centre, announced on June 8, 2018.
• A Family Practice Learning Centre co-located with the Kamloops Urgent Primary Care Centre opened in August 2018 and pairs people without a primary care provider with University of British Columbia family medicine residents to receive ongoing team-based care and treatment.
• All centres will be open in the next 12 months and are a key part of the Province’s new primary health-care strategy, which is focused on improving services for patients through team-based care.
• The strategy will see government fund and recruit 200 family doctors and 200 nurse practitioners, and hire 50 clinical pharmacists to help provide all British Columbians with faster and improved access to health care.

Learn More:

To learn more about the Province’s Primary Health-Care Strategy, visit: https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2018PREM0034-001010

To see a tour of the Kamloops Urgent Primary Care Centre, visit: https://youtu.be/M_3YRIuCwBg

To learn more about the Surrey Urgent Primary Care Centre, visit: https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2018PREM0043-001138

To learn more about the Province’s strategy to increase the number of pharmacists in primary care, visit: https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2018HLTH0055-001118