Five of the six nurse practitioners hired for the Terra Nova Medical Clinic were recruited from the U.S.<\/p>\n
Six nurse practitioners \u2014 including five recruited from the United States \u2014 were ready and waiting to take on 6,000 new patients at a new medical clinic in Esquimalt that officially opened on Friday.<\/p>\n
The Terra Nova Medical Clinic will offer long-term primary care, taking patients from those registered with the provincial Health Care Connect Registry list.<\/p>\n
Mayor Barb Desjardins said Esquimalt residents will have priority before slots are opened up to people on the registry who live in the West Shore area. About 7,000 Esquimalt residents are in need of a primary care provider, according to its Community Health Needs Assessment surveys.<\/p>\n
Desjardins said Friday that she\u2019s \u201cover the moon\u201d that the medical clinic, which launched in mid-August, is now officially open.<\/p>\n
The 2,000-square-foot clinic has six examination rooms \u2014 including one for pediatrics \u2014 and is located on the lower level of Pacific House, a condo building at 899 Esquimalt Rd. with commercial units on the ground floor.<\/p>\n
The clinic, whose entrance is off Head Street at Esquimalt Road, is across the street from the Urgent and Primary Care Clinic at 890 Esquimalt Rd., which opened in December 2021.<\/p>\n
When Pacific House was proposed, Esquimalt council worked with Lexi Development Group to include a zoning covenant on the property that required a clinic with medical care providers.<\/p>\n
Babak Nikbakhtan, managing director of Lexi Development Group Inc., said the space was given to Terra Nova Medical Clinic rent-free for 10 years.<\/p>\n
A nurse practitioner has a scope close to that of a physician \u2014 conducting medical and physical assessments, ordering and interpreting tests, diagnosing medical conditions, prescribing medications and making referrals to medical specialists as needed \u2014 and can act as a patient or family\u2019s primary care provider.<\/p>\n
Each of the nurse practitioners at the clinic already has a roster of about 40 patients, with 1,000 as the goal.<\/p>\n
One of them is 43-year-old Jess Anderson from Chicago, who was an ICU registered nurse for 16 years before becoming a nurse practitioner for the last five.<\/p>\n
Anderson said politics under U.S. President Donald Trump played a \u201cpretty vital\u201d role in her decision to relocate with her husband and two daughters. Anderson said she also wanted to spend more time with patients, and here she\u2019s given one hour for an initial consult with new patients.<\/p>\n
Terrance Clarke, 53, of Massachusetts said he and his wife, a physiotherapist, began planning a move to Canada on the day of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters.<\/p>\n
Clarke was also motivated to start looking to Canada as a new home by an increase in non-science-based medical guidelines, especially with respect to vaccine recommendations.<\/p>\n
Of all the provinces, \u201cBritish Columbia was the most welcoming,\u201d said Clarke, who previously worked as a prison nurse, has been a nurse practitioner for 12 years and has special training\u00a0in substance use.<\/p>\n
Noemi Lopez, who is from California, said she\u2019s been a nurse for more than two decades, with the last six as a nurse practitioner, with a special interest in rheumatology.<\/p>\n
Originally from Mexico, the 43-year-old said when she was looking at resettling in B.C., Vancouver Island seemed to be \u201cthe best place.\u201d<\/p>\n
Terra Nova medical director and CEO Dr. Julie Wilson and owner Dr. Ali Qazalbash, married physicians who opened their first clinic in 2015, said Esquimalt is their 25th clinic. Five are on the Island, with the next location planned for Nanaimo.<\/p>\n
Wilson and Qazalbash said the physician-owned and funded clinic is unique in that its nurse practitioners in Esquimalt can draw on a network of family physicians, specialists and other nurse practitioners, including 100 physicians under contract.<\/p>\n
All the clinics in the network work together \u201cas if it was one large clinic,\u201d said Qazalbash, noting it doesn\u2019t have Island specialists enrolled yet but is recruiting.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can talk to people if we need help. If somebody else has expertise, you can ask and refer, so it\u2019s just a little added bonus.\u201d<\/p>\n
To join the provincial health registry, go to healthlinkbc.ca<\/a>.<\/p>\n