Kamloops Urgent Primary Care and Learning Centre will soon open its doors

The Kamloops Urgent Primary Care and Learning Centre (UPCLC) will now be able to provide people with a new option for timely primary care.

Adrian Dix, Minister of health, made this announcement earlier today.

“One in seven people in Kamloops don’t have a doctor or primary care provider, and many people living in B.C. are unable to get same-day or next-day appointments with their primary-care providers,” said Dix.

“The Kamloops Urgent Primary Care and Learning Centre is going to make a real difference, by using a team-based model of care, to provide greater access to day-to-day care.”

Patients will be able to see a range of health-care providers depending on individual needs.

UPCLC will be staffed with a team of multi-disciplinary health professionals including family doctors, nurses and physiotherapists.

“It’s important for patients to have access to care when they or their family member have a non-emergency, but urgent primary health-care need,” said Doug Cochrane, Interior Health board chair.

“Interior Health is proud to offer a quality centre, where people will be able to see a doctor or another health professional within 24 hours.”

The centre will be located at 311 Columbia Street and will begin by opening in the evening seven days a week in June 2018.

After it is fully operational in the fall of 2018, the centre will be open every day from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. year round.

Referrals will be accepted from physicians, nurse practitioners and other community clinicians. Patients will also be able to self-refer.

The centre also plans on opening its Family Practice Learning Centre in the fall which will have resident doctors working under the supervision of experienced physicians.

“When we provide family medicine residents an opportunity to practice in Kamloops, we increase the likelihood they will stay in the area to work on an ongoing basis. The UPCLC offers a supportive environment to gain experience and to care for patients. It will attract our next generation of primary-care doctors,” said Dr. Selena Lawrie, who is a clinical instructor with the UBC faculty of medicine’s department of family practice, and an Interior Health board member.

The new Kamloops UPCLC was created through a partnership between the Ministry of Health, Interior Health, the Thompson Regional Hospital District, the Thompson Region Division of Family Practice, and the UBC faculty of medicine’s department of family practice.

Local Aboriginal health leaders and patient representatives from Patient Voices Network also lent their wisdom and experience to the project.

The centre will cost approximately $3.4 million, with $1.36 million coming from the Thompson Regional Hospital District.

Click here to view a video tour of the Kamloops Urgent Primary Care Centre.