Summit Medical Clinic officially closed after quarter century accepting patients
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KAMLOOPS — Friday marked the last day of service at the Summit Medical Clinic, which is shutting doors following a lengthy battle to attract enough doctors to the practice.
Medical centre manager Dan Perry says it’s a hard day realizing the clinic is officially closing down. It’s been a mainstay serving the community’s health care needs for 25 years, seeing about 10,000 patients a year.
“I feel badly for the patients, my staff. We’re all done. It’s a less-than-perfect solution,” says Perry. “When we look back at how long a lot of people have been looking for a doctor and haven’t found one, this is another dark day in that sort of history. There’s not a lot of doctors coming into town and there certainly isn’t enough to replenish the existing supply, so what do you do.”
Perry says Friday’s closure of the clinic speaks to the state of health care in Kamloops, and in particular the discrepancy between pay for family doctors, who are paid on a per-patient basis, and physicians who work out of the hospital.
