VICTORIA -- A new nurse practitioner primary care clinic is scheduled to open in Victoria at the end of the month.
A nurse practitioner clinic operates like similar family doctor clinics and will give local residents an opportunity to connect with a primary care provider if they do not have one, according to the province.
The clinic, located at 1139 Yates St., will begin offering virtual care appointments on Sept. 28.
Currently, renovations are taking place at the clinic. Once they are complete, the care centre will open for in-person appointments, though the province has not yet provided a timeline on when renovations will be complete.
Since Aug. 10, the clinic has been gradually accepting registrations from nearby residents who do not have a primary care provider.
In the first two weeks alone, the clinic received more than 1,000 registration applications.
As of Sept. 10, the province says that more than 550 patients had been registered at the clinic.
Over the next three years, the province estimates that roughly 6,800 people who lack a primary care provider will be registered at this clinic, or referred to other clinics in Victoria.
“Nurse practitioners are part of B.C.’s primary care strategy and work together with doctors and other health-care professionals to improve the primary care system in the province,” said B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix in a release Friday.
“This is the third nurse practitioner primary care clinic that we are establishing under our strategy and the first in Victoria,” he said. “These clinics will connect more people with the care they need, closer to home.”
The clinic, called Health Care on Yates, will be open for virtual appointments from Monday to Friday between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m.
Once the building is renovated, hours will be expanded to 8:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Monday to Thursday, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Fridays and from 8:30 a.m. to noon on Saturdays.
Currently, the clinic’s team consists of six full-time nurse practitioners. The province plans to add two registered nurse, a social worker, a mental health and substance use clinician and four medical office assistants in the future.
