By Dylana Milobar

Sun Peaks Family Practice taking in many Kamloops patients

Jan 12, 2019 | 10:36 AM

SUN PEAKS — A little over a year after the opening of the Sun Peaks Family Practice, the municipality’s Mayor says many patients are coming in from Kamloops.

Throughout a successful first year of having family doctors in the community, Al Raine says even people outside of Sun Peaks are seeking medical care at the area’s health centre.

“I think about 30 per cent of the patients this last summer were from the Kamloops area.”

However, Raine says they were prepared for some people to make the trek, knowing thousands in Kamloops still have no family physician. 

“We were seeing numbers saying there’s 30,000 people Kamloops without a doctor,” He explains, “So we knew, if we get a doctor, a lot of people would consider driving up to Sun Peaks to see the doctor.”

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Overall, he says the centre has been running smoothly, and improvements are coming along- something Raine is pleased to see after many Sun Peaks residents had been going as far as Salmon Arm to seek medical care.

“We have part-time doctors who are helping out, covering some of the days when people are off. And we now have a second doctor working out of the clinic,” Raine says, “We’re expanding services all the time, getting more equipment, so we’re very pleased.”

After years of fundraising, the Sun Peaks Health Centre began operating Dec. 11 in 2017, and was officially opened on Jan. 26 in 2018.