KAMLOOPS — Kamloops’ very own Urgent Primary Care Centre has grown.
Opened in June outside Royal Inland Hospital, and the first of its kind in British Columbia, dignitaries and health care workers celebrated the addition of a Family Practice Learning Centre (FPLC) Tuesday.
B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix called it “another step in how we are improving access to primary health care in the Thompson-Okanagan region immediately, and over the longer term.”
The FPLC enables residents to gain more hands-on experience under the guidance of eight fully licensed family physicians.
Patients will be referred through the HealthLink BC Kamloops waitlist, with priority going to people who don’t have a family doctor or nurse practitioner, but who have an illness or injury that requires immediate ongoing care.
Since the centre opened on Aug. 27, 32 patients have had appointments with the FPLC. Patients seeing a physician there will also have access to the team-based practice in the Urgent Primary Care Centre, which includes registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, physiotherapists and social workers.
The province says the Urgent Primary Care Centre has seen nearly 1,000 patients since opening in June.
The centre serves patients who need same-day or next-day appointments but can’t get them with their current family doctors or primary care providers.
