BC Gov News

Henry Yao, MLA, Richmond South Centre –

“Primary care is the bedrock of our public health-care system and helps forge healthier, stronger communities. I’m thrilled that the people of Richmond will soon have more access to high-quality primary care and more people will be attached to primary care providers at the Richmond East urgent and primary care centre.”

Kelly Greene, MLA, Richmond-Steveston –

“The opening of the Richmond East urgent and primary care centre is great news for our community and it actions our government’s priority of making timely, team-based care available close to home for everyone. As Richmond’s diverse, vibrant population increases and ages, so does the need for health care. This centre will help meet current and future demand.”

Vivian Eliopoulos, president and CEO, Vancouver Coastal Health –

“Vancouver Coastal Health is pleased to open a second urgent and primary care centre in Richmond, enhancing access to care for more people in the community. The new Richmond East urgent and primary care centre allows us to provide a greater number of residents urgent health-care services, as well as primary care to seniors and clients with medically complex, mental-health and social-work needs.”

Spiro Polyhronopoulos, medical director, Richmond East UPCC –

“I’m very excited about the opening of this new Richmond East urgent and primary care centre. These centres are becoming an incredibly valuable addition to our health-care system that bring more health-care options into the community, making it easier to access care, receive followup care and connect to support services in Richmond.”

Bernice Budz, CEO, Nurses and Nurse Practitioners of BC –

“Nurses are highly skilled and knowledgeable clinicians who provide exceptional care in primary-care settings by delivering timely, integrative and well-co-ordinated care to patients. Nursing professionals work collaboratively with other health professional colleagues in UPCCs and in other settings to ensure that patients receive timely access to diverse, wraparound care. Nurses and Nurse Practitioners of B.C. are pleased that with the opening of a new UPCC in Richmond, more patients will be able to rely on nursing expertise for their health-care needs, right in their community.”

Jennifer West, executive director, Richmond Division of Family Practice –   

“We are excited to announce collaboration between the Richmond East UPCC, Vancouver Coastal Health and the Richmond Division of Family Practice to establish a collaborative team-based clinic for medical learners. This collaboration will bring together medical students at various stages of their academic journey with community-based family-physician preceptors to guide and supervise interactions with patients. We are proud to offer enhanced learning opportunities in a modern and purpose-built facility to create a community of learners, who will establish roots in Richmond and remain with us in professional practice.” 

The Richmond UPCC features the following:

• Improved access to care through extended weekend and evening hours. The centre will be open seven days a week, 365 days per year, including holidays, once fully operational.
• Patients can self-refer for their urgent-care needs or be referred by community service providers, other health-care professionals and agencies.
• People can also schedule appointments, but they are not required to access urgent-care services. During busy periods, appointments will be prioritized based on urgency.
• An interpreter on wheels, consisting of an Interpreter app on iPad with amplifier. The app supports many languages and with live interpreter on voice or video. If needed, an in-person interpreter can be requested as well.
• Patients requiring laboratory testing and medical imaging can access these services on site.

The Richmond East urgent and primary care centre is the seventh UPCC in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, including Richmond City Centre UPCC, Vancouver Northeast UPCC, Vancouver City Centre UPCC, Vancouver Southeast UPCC, REACH UPCC and North Vancouver UPCC.

There are 32 UPCCs in implementation around B.C. and more to open by 2025.

Richmond health-care information:

• The five most common chronic conditions in the Richmond local health area are hypertension, episodic mood and anxiety disorder, osteoporosis and ischemic heart disease.
• Approximately 29% of visits to the Richmond hospital’s emergency department in fiscal year 2022-2023 were triaged as relatively low acuity.
• Many of these visits could be dealt with in alternative settings, such as an UPCC.