REGINA \u2014 The first of its kind Urgent Care Centre in Regina has been in operation for more than a year, with over 41,000 patients having received care thus far, more than double what was first anticipated.<\/p>\n
It illustrates the need for the UCC not only in the Queen City, but as a model for other centres in Saskatchewan, according to comments by the province\u2019s health minister.<\/p>\n
\u201cUrgent care is relatively new in Saskatchewan, but it is just showing some really good signs at the one facility we have now,\u201d said provincial Health Minister Jeremy Cockrill. \u201cI mean, 41,000 patients seen in Regina\u2014and we know that\u2019s not just people that live in the city, that\u2019s people from surrounding communities as well\u2014that\u2019s really exciting to see. It\u2019s just giving people another point of access for care.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Regina UCC location is a blend of medical professionals, including family physicians, emergency department physicians, registered nurses, nurse practitioners, psychiatric nurses, laboratory and X-ray technicians. This mix allows the UCC to address a wide range of needs that patients may encounter.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s all about providing patients quicker access to care,\u201d Cockrill told the World-Spectator. \u201cWhat we really are focusing on is making sure that patients are getting the right level of care in the right place at the right time.\u201d<\/p>\n
More urgent care centres being constructed<\/p>\n
The Regina UCC is the first of what will be many such facilities across the province. Ground has been broken for a UCC in Saskatoon, and plans are to have additional locations in Prince Albert, Moose Jaw, North Battleford, plus second locations in both Saskatoon and Regina.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a priority for every patient in the province to be attached to a primary care provider by 2028,\u201d Cockrill said. \u201cWe\u2019re working aggressively on that, but then also providing when you have an emergency or a situation where you can\u2019t wait for an appointment with your primary care provider, what are the right options for you? Is it the emergency room? Is it the Urgent Care Centre?\u201d<\/p>\n
Saskatoon\u2019s first UCC will be near St. Paul\u2019s Hospital, taking some of the capacity pressure off that facility\u2019s emergency department.<\/p>\n
He also noted that not all UCCs will be the same, as needs particular to each community will be researched.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are doing some pre-engagement, and as well with the second sites for Saskatoon and Regina, we\u2019re doing pre-engagement with the physician communities in those respective areas of the province, understanding what the specific needs are and what the right solution looks like,\u201d Cockrill said. \u201cIt\u2019s probably going to look different in North Battleford and Prince Albert and Moose Jaw than what we see in Regina with the first Urgent Care Centre, and that\u2019s okay, because the needs in those communities are different. I live in the Battlefords, what my community needs is going to look a little bit different than what\u2019s on Albert Street (Regina), so it\u2019s important that we\u2019re engaging with physicians, which we\u2019ve been doing now for a couple of months, hearing from them, what they\u2019re seeing, talking to other folks in the Saskatchewan Health Authority and in the community, and making sure that whatever site we pick, whatever kind of model of care we go with for urgent care in those communities, fits with what the community has already. It complements what the community has, but it\u2019s also providing another level of service for residents.\u201d<\/p>\n
Communities outside the cities gaining UCC facilities will also notice changes, including physician recruitment.<\/p>\n
\u201cI actually think that having more opportunities for areas of practice in the province is a way that we can continue to be more competitive from a recruitment process perspective,\u201d Cockrill said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe physicians that I\u2019ve had the opportunity to meet with and talk to, I\u2019m noticing more and more that physicians are looking to have a varied practice in the province, so doing a little bit of this, a little bit of that, being able to keep their skills up in certain areas. I think the opportunity that we have with Urgent Care Centres around the province is for family physicians, obviously, to continue having a patient panel and being able to see patients from a primary care perspective, but then also being able to keep more acute skills up by working in the Urgent Care Centre, not necessarily a full emergency room experience for them, but being able to see patients at a higher level of acuity and make sure that we have those skills built up in our community. Overall, that\u2019s helpful in terms of ensuring that acute services\u2014whether it be in small communities like the southeast or in our major centres- that we have more practitioners that can do that type of work.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"REGINA \u2014 The first of its kind Urgent Care Centre in Regina has been in operation for more…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":68039,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[49,48,4404,4398,84,392,1893,4397,4402,4401,4400,4399,4403],"class_list":["post-68038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-country","tag-country-music","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-radio","tag-regina-news","tag-reigna-pats","tag-rider-radio","tag-saskatchewan-roughriders","tag-saskatchewan-sports","tag-sportscage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68038\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}