Prairie North Health Region has provided an update on how things are going with the new walk-in clinic, located at 1102 - 103rd St.
The new clinic has been operating for a couple of weeks and Vikki Smart, vice-president of Primary Health Services with Prairie North Health Region, reports it has been busy.
“We’ve been seeing 40 to 50 patients per day, during the week, within our eight-to-eight hours, and then about 28 patients on the Saturday we are open on the weekend. So it is relatively busy, so that’s good news.”
The clinic has two full-time physicians and each physician is seeing about 25 people per day, she said.
There are a couple of slow times at the clinic — between 8 and 9:30 a.m. and between 6:30 and 8 p.m., so those are good times to get in to see the physician quickly.
The busiest times, Smart reported, are between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. At those peak times patients may have to wait for an hour, but “not more than that. It’s a lot less of a wait time than in the ER,” said Smart.
Generally patients can expect between a 15-minute to an hour wait.
Both physicians are still accepting new patients and Smart said they are priorizing those who do not have a family doctor or looking to change physicians.
In the future, Prairie North is looking to recruit two additional physicians to the clinic, as a four-physician clinic would be much more viable with the expanded hours.
The response to the clinic has been “very very positive,” said Smart.
”They feel it’s a much needed service. They’re just really appreciative of being able to come in and deal with their colds or urgent needs of the day, and get their medications renewed in a timely fashion.”
People are also welcoming less pressure on the ER at the hospital with the clinic able to serve as an alternative.
