Media Contacts

Ministry of Health

Communications
250 952-1887 (media line)

Interior Health

Communications
1 844 469-7077
media@interiorhealth.ca

Backgrounders

Cranbrook Urgent and Primary Care Centre facts
  • The centre will feature improved access to care through extended weekend and evening hours.
  • Longitudinal primary care services and urgent and episodic primary care services will be offered at the centre.
  • People can self-refer for their urgent care needs. Patients can also be referred by community service providers, other health-care professionals and agencies. People are encouraged to visit their own family physician or nurse practitioner where possible.
  • People can also schedule appointments. During busy periods, appointments will be prioritized based on urgency.
  • Patients requiring laboratory testing beyond the simple specimen collection will be provided with requisitions for lab tests to be completed at nearby laboratories.
  • Of nearly 27,982 people in the Cranbrook region, approximately 4,809, or roughly 17%, of patients are considered unattached.
  • The five top identified conditions in the Cranbrook local health area (LHA) are mood and anxiety disorders, depression, hypertension, asthma and osteoarthritis.
  • Approximately 35% of visits to East Kootenay Regional Hospital emergency department in 2020-21 were triaged as relatively low acuity. Many of these visits could be dealt with in alternative settings, such as an urgent and primary care centre.
  • UPCCs are part of a comprehensive provincial 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 care and connect to other services they may need.
  • The Cranbrook UPCC joins other local primary care clinics, which provide primary care services to the immediate vicinity and form the East Kootenay Primary Care Network.

East Kootenay Primary Care Network:

  • The East Kootenay Primary Care Network is working to attach 18,317 patients by 2022-23. The network is adding capacity to the 33 physicians in the Cranbrook area that provide team-based care through an interdisciplinary team of allied health professionals and increase access for people.