New urgent primary care clinic opens in Qualicum Beach<\/p>\n
Published 5:35 am Wednesday, February 25, 2026<\/p>\n
A new urgent primary care clinic is open in Qualicum Beach two days a week, with medical care costs covered by MSP.<\/p>\n
The founder and CEO of TrueWave Integrative Health Clinic said the clinic will be open Wednesdays and Thursdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. for now, but the hope is to expand to five days a week at some point.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe goal is to try to offload some of the pressure from the urgent care centre, that people don\u2019t have to go in there and sit for six hours or eight hours for something that could be dealt with at a clinic setting,\u201d said Murray Coughtrey.<\/p>\n
The clinic is located at Coughtrey\u2019s existing practice, which offers services including non-invasive shockwave therapy treatments.<\/p>\n
The urgent primary care clinic is staffed by a doctor, who was seeing upwards of 47 patients a day, but Coughtrey said they will scale back the number of patients a day to approximately 38 or 40, to avoid burnout.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been difficult setting this up. It\u2019s me doing it on my own. The health authority and others haven\u2019t been involved, so it\u2019s quite a difficult, costly expense to get things up and running,\u201d Coughtrey added. \u201cIt\u2019s very difficult to recruit GPs. The avenue for it has been typically through the Division of Family Practice and they haven\u2019t been able to give me any help.\u201d<\/p>\n
Services and treatment include: prescription refills; minor injuries (sprains, cuts, minor burns); urinary tract infections; women\u2019s health concerns; men\u2019s health concerns; pediatric care; assessment and treatment of minor illnesses (such as infections, flu, rashes); and assessment and management of non-emergent medical issues.<\/p>\n
There are fees for ICBC driver\u2019s medical examinations and third party form completion, the same as any other GP, Coughtrey said.<\/p>\n
Word got out quickly after the clinic opened earlier in February and although it\u2019s been a bit of \u201ca zoo\u201d to start, Coughtrey said the people coming in are being understanding and appreciative.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re elated that there\u2019s somewhere that they can go that you don\u2019t have to actually pay to access.\u201d<\/p>\n
There has been some confusion on social media, Coughtrey said, despite the clinic\u2019s ads explicitly saying medical care is MSP-covered.<\/p>\n
Adding the services of a nurse practitioner would be a challenge, since they don\u2019t bill for their time like a GP, Coughtrey said, and are funded by the Ministry of Health. He plans to contact the ministry\u2019s rep for the primary care network on the Island to see if the ministry can help the clinic with a nurse practitioner.<\/p>\n
The expenses involved in running the clinic are \u201chuge\u201d, Coughtrey said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m doing this more for a public service than anything else, because I am not making money at it. It\u2019s actually costing me money.\u201d<\/p>\n
He is working on bringing in more doctors and said there are retired GPs open to working a few days a week in a walk-in clinic setting.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to try to expand it. It may take a while and during the initial phase, in the next month or two, there\u2019s gonna be little tweaks that we\u2019re gonna have to make it more efficient and better servicing the public,\u201d he added. \u201cBear with us. We\u2019ll do what we can to help people that don\u2019t have physicians or do have physicians and can\u2019t get in to see them.\u201d<\/p>\n
People can can book a appointment or walk in during clinic hours.<\/p>\n
TrueWave Integrative Health Clinic is located at 219 \u2013 1B Fern Rd. W in Qualicum Beach.<\/p>\n
For more information or to book an appointment call 778-909-1151.<\/p>\n
RELATED: New Qualicum Beach medical clinic to open in September 2026<\/a><\/p>\n RELATED: Funds sought to help build Qualicum Beach medical centre<\/a><\/p>\n