(flickr.com)

Media Contacts

Ministry of Health

Communications
250 952-1887 (media line)

Vancouver Coastal Health

Communications
604 833-4541

Backgrounders

North Vancouver UPCC

The new North Vancouver UPCC includes the following:

  • Improved access to care through extended weekend and evening hours.
  • Once it is fully operational by mid-to-late September 2019, it will be open seven days a week, 365 days per year; Monday to Saturday from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., and on Sundays and statutory holidays, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
  • The most urgent patients will be treated first.
  • The UPCC will be an integral part of the North Shore central region (population approximately 69,000) and will provide access to urgent and primary care for the whole North Shore.
  • Of the total North Shore population, 40,945, or roughly 20%, are over 65 years of age or older. Of those living with illness or chronic conditions (39.2%), the top five identified conditions on the North Shore are hypertension, mood disorders, asthma, osteoarthritis and diabetes.
  • More than 33,000 patients across the North Shore are considered unattached (16%), of which 11,500 reside in the Central Primary Care Network catchment area. 
  • In 2017-18, 11,490 emergency department visits by North Shore residents were triaged as non-emergency at Lions Gate Hospital, with Sundays being the busiest day. 
  • Annual staffing and operating costs are approximately $3.378 million.
  • One-time costs for startup of $115,000 and a $1.95 million capital investment.
  • The UPCC will be approximately 604 square metres (6,500 square feet) and includes:
    • 13 exam rooms, a treatment room, three stretcher bays and a waiting room.
  • The site is space-leased from Seymour Health Group.
  • Using a team-based care model, urgent and primary care centres identify unattached patients and support them until they are connected to the most appropriate provider in the community. They also provide:
    • extended hours of care (evenings/weekends/holidays);
    • basic in-office urgent care services (e.g., sprains and simple fractures, minor cuts requiring stitches, minor burns, rapid access to mental health and substance-use crisis intervention services);
    • assessment and treatment for minor illnesses (e.g., earaches, abdominal pain, skin rashes or infections, urinary tract infections); and
    •  on-site or close access to diagnostic imaging and laboratory services (e.g., electrocardiograms, X-rays, blood tests).
  • Primary care is the everyday basic health care given by a health-care provider.
  • Urgent primary care is the care that people need within 12 to 24 hours, and for when the situation  is not a true emergency.
  • Approximately 40% of visits made to area emergency departments could be dealt with in alternative settings, including an urgent and primary care centre.
  • UPCCs are part of a comprehensive strategy to transform B.C.͛s health system by bringing together and co-ordinating with health-care providers, services and programs to make it easier for people to access care, receive followup and connect to other services they may need.

This is the third UPCC to open in Greater Vancouver, following the REACH Urgent and Primary Care Centre, which was announced in July 2019, and the City Centre UPCC that opened in November 2018.