Image Credit: Interior Health

By Victor Kaisar

Staffing New Kamloops UPCC

Interior Health recruiting staff at new Kamloops UPCC

Nov 29, 2024 | 8:39 AM

KAMLOOPS — Interior Health is working to hire new staff members as it gradually ramps up operations at the north Kamloops Urgent and Primary Care Centre (UPCC) which opened this week.

The new facility at Northills Mall will feature a walk-in component allowing people to either call ahead and book an appointment or drop by and be seen by a medical professional.

“We do have about 15 staff in here during the day,” Kathy Doull, Interior Health’s Executive Director of Clinical Operations, told CFJC Today.

“Once we get to our full capacity, we’ll have physicians, nurse practitioners, physiotherapists, social workers, nurses, and [medical office assistants] in here to support the public.”

Doull says the positions at the North Shore UPCC are “all new roles to support primary care in Kamloops.”

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“We already have a full complement of nursing staff and six primary care providers. We’re still working to fill all the social work and physiotherapy positions, but we are doing very well bringing in new staff,” Doull added.

At this time its not clear when the new UPCC will be fully staffed. But when its fully operational, Interior Health anticipates it will provide around 85,000 patient visits per year or around 232 a day.

“The UPCC is for those individuals that need to be seen within 12 to 24 hours for things like rashes, ear aches, or anything else where you need to see a medical professional but you don’t need the emergency room,” Doull said, noting people will be triaged and seen based on the severity of their condition.

“We know that we have hit our max capacity at the other UPCC downtown, so this one will really help us to take some of that patient load off. It also helps us keep people out of emergency because we can provide that urgent care.”

For now, the north Kamloops UPCC will be open between 11:00 a.m. and 3 p.m. until Dec. 2, and then between 11 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. from Dec. 3 until Dec. 9.

Starting Dec. 10, it will be open between 7:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m., seven days a week, including on statutory holidays.