VICTORIA -- The province’s 20th urgent and primary care centre will open in the Saanich area in November, the B.C. government announced Friday.
Urgent and primary care centres (UPCC) offer medical services for urgent needs that require medical treatment within 12 to 24 hours, such as minor cuts or burns, sprains, ear infections or urinary problems.
UPCCs also offer virtual care appointments and help connect people with a primary care provider if they do not currently have one.
“People in the Saanich community have told me that they need more access to primary care,” said Lana Popham, MLA for Saanich South in a release Friday.
“This urgent and primary care centre in North Quadra will give residents better access to team-based urgent and primary care, closer to home,” she said.
The upcoming UPCC will open in 100 – 4420 Chatterton Way in November. The province says that the health centre will be staffed by family physicians, nurse practitioners, registered nurses and other health-care providers.
The exact team and opening date of the UPCC have not yet been announced by the B.C. government.
The province’s first ever UPCC opened in Langford in November 2018. Since then, more than 47,000 people have received treatment at the care centre.
Over the past year, two UPCCs also opened in Nanaimo and James Bay. Another urgent and primary care centre has been announced in Esquimalt and is slated to open in spring 2021.
The upcoming UPCC opening in Saanich is being led by Island Health and the South Island and Victoria Divisions of Family Practice.
According to Dr. Vanessa Young, a member of the South Island Division of Family Practice, the new UPCC will “help address a 20-year long crisis in our south island communities.”
