Newfoundland’s Costco-turned-clinic overflows on urgent care’s opening day

A Costco has turned into a much-needed community hospital, hoping to alleviate some of the strain on nearby emergency rooms. Garrett Barry reports.

A new clinic in the east end of St. John’s overflowed with patients on Monday, sending some people home without seeing a nurse or doctor.

The urgent care centre, located in the new Unity Health Centre in St. John’s, was full by mid-morning. A security guard was turning visitors away at the door.

“First day, coming out, I hear it was open, and you can’t even get in there,” said one patient, Don, who spoke with CTV News briefly after being turned away just after noon.

The man said he was looking for help managing a dislocated shoulder, as he’d have to wait weeks to see his regular physician.

“[I’ll] go home and suffer it out again, take a bunch of painkillers. It’s all you can do.”

CTV News spoke with another patient who waited for about 6 hours before being treated inside the clinic. They described an overflowing waiting room, with some patients resorting to sitting on the floor or windowsill, as there weren’t enough chairs for everyone waiting to be seen.

The urgent care clinic is part of a sizeable renovation project that turned an abandoned Costco warehouse into a medical centre in the east end of St. John’s.

Officials with Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services said last week they hoped the urgent care clinic would take some strain off emergency rooms elsewhere in the city.

Backlogs at emergency rooms have proved particularly vexing for paramedics in the city.

According to an access to information request shared online by St. John’s resident Matt Barter, paramedics have spent hundreds of hours each month in so-called “Off Load Delays,” where paramedics are unable to hand a patient over to hospital staff because there are no beds available.

With thousands of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians searching for a family doctor, health officials are betting urgent care centres like the one opened Monday could be part of the solution.

The centre is staffed with nurses, nurse practitioners and doctors. It aims to treat urgent, but not emergency, issues quicker than would be seen at one of the city’s bigger hospitals.

“Think, you know, a potential cold or flu or infection,” said Megan Carey, an interim director of primary care for Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services, during a tour of the facility last week.

“Maybe you think you might have a chest infection, or something along those lines.”

Another similar centre is under construction on the other side of St. John’s, and a third is in the planning stages in the nearby community of Conception Bay South.

Representatives from the health board weren’t immediately available to discuss the clinic’s overcrowding on Monday.