Friday, November 4, 2022
People living in the Tri-Cities will benefit from improved access to team-based, comprehensive primary health care with the official opening of an urgent and primary care centre (UPCC) at its permanent location at 3105 Murray St. in Port Moody on Nov. 7, 2022.
“Ensuring that quality, timely health care is readily accessible for people in B.C. is an important priority for our government,” said Adrian Dix, Minister of Health. “The new urgent and primary-care centre in Port Moody will help meet the health-care needs of the rapidly growing and aging population, and address the gap in primary-care availability for those without a family doctor.”
The centre will serve two purposes. The first is to provide care for people with non-life-threatening conditions who need to see a health-care provider within 12 to 24 hours, but do not require an emergency department, such as people with minor cuts or burns, headaches and sprains, as well as those experiencing mental-health and substance-use challenges. It will be open 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., seven days a week, for urgent care.
The second purpose is to help attach patients to a regular full-service primary care provider. In collaboration with the Fraser Northwest Division of Family Practice, it will help attach patients to regular primary-care providers in the community for their long-term care while continuing to provide ongoing care for unattached patients. Full-service care hours will be 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday to Friday.
“This is exciting news for the communities in the Tri-Cities,” said Rick Glumac, MLA for Port Moody-Coquitlam. “The new Urgent and Primary Care Centre is a meaningful step toward meeting the health-care needs of people who may not have a regular family doctor and improving access to medical care for all people in the community.”
The new permanent location will be staffed by a team of 25.5 full-time equivalent (FTE) health-care workers, including the equivalent of 5.1 FTE family physicians, 5.6 FTE nurse practitioners, 5.1 FTE registered nurses, 9.7 FTE allied health professionals (social workers, dietitians, physiotherapists and clinical counsellors) and support staff.
A temporary location previously opened at Eagle Ridge Hospital in February 2021, providing limited urgent-care services seven days a week from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. The temporary site had been staffed by 6.9 FTE staff; a small site-based team of 2.8 FTE family physicians and 4.1 FTE registered nurses, with support from medical office assistants. To date, the temporary location accommodated 20,507 patient visits and attached 838 patients to a regular primary-care provider.
The Port Moody Urgent and Primary Care Centre is the 21st UPCC announced under the government’s primary-care strategy. It is aligned and connected to the Fraser Northwest Primary Care Network, which includes the Fraser Northwest Division of Family Practice, Indigenous Partners in the Tri-Cities on the territory of the Kʷikʷəƛ̓əm (Kwikwetlem), Qiqéyt (Key-Kayt) and Coast Salish Nations.
The UPCC in the Tri-Cities is the seventh centre in the Fraser Health region, including two in Surrey, two in Burnaby, and one each in Ridge Meadows (Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows) and Abbotsford.
Learn More:
To learn about the Province’s primary health-care strategy, visit:
https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2018PREM0034-001010
To learn about the Province’s strategy to increase the number of nurse practitioners, visit:
https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2018HLTH0034-000995
To learn about the Province’s strategy to recruit and retain more family medicine graduates, visit:
https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2018HLTH0052-001043
To learn about the Province’s health human resources strategy, visit:
https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2022HLTH0059-001464