REGINA — The first of its kind Urgent Care Centre in Regina has been in operation for more than a year, with over 41,000 patients having received care thus far, more than double what was first anticipated.
It illustrates the need for the UCC not only in the Queen City, but as a model for other centres in Saskatchewan, according to comments by the province's health minister.
“Urgent care is relatively new in Saskatchewan, but it is just showing some really good signs at the one facility we have now,” said provincial Health Minister Jeremy Cockrill. “I mean, 41,000 patients seen in Regina—and we know that’s not just people that live in the city, that’s people from surrounding communities as well—that’s really exciting to see. It’s just giving people another point of access for care.”
The Regina UCC location is a blend of medical professionals, including family physicians, emergency department physicians, registered nurses, nurse practitioners, psychiatric nurses, laboratory and X-ray technicians. This mix allows the UCC to address a wide range of needs that patients may encounter.
“It’s all about providing patients quicker access to care,” Cockrill told the World-Spectator. “What we really are focusing on is making sure that patients are getting the right level of care in the right place at the right time.”
Some of the non-life-threatening emergency services provided at the UCC include treating moderate illness like infections; intravenous therapy; onsite point of care testing and satellite lab services; treating minor injuries (burns, broken bones, stitches), assessing eye injuries, abdominal pain, and shortness of breath; heart telemetry assessment with an electrocardiogram, and diagnostic imaging. Services for mental health and addictions are also provided at the UCC, things such as screening and assessment, counselling, prescriptions, connecting to resources, and providing referrals.
More urgent care centres being constructed
The Regina UCC is the first of what will be many such facilities across the province. Ground has been broken for a UCC in Saskatoon, and plans are to have additional locations in Prince Albert, Moose Jaw, North Battleford, plus second locations in both Saskatoon and Regina.
“It’s a priority for every patient in the province to be attached to a primary care provider by 2028,” Cockrill said. “We’re working aggressively on that, but then also providing when you have an emergency or a situation where you can’t wait for an appointment with your primary care provider, what are the right options for you? Is it the emergency room? Is it the Urgent Care Centre?”
Saskatoon’s first UCC will be near St. Paul’s Hospital, taking some of the capacity pressure off that facility’s emergency department.
“We’re getting very close to being 25 per cent complete at that Urgent Care Centre, which is on the west side, and kind of a unique setup because it’s a very specific partnership with Ahtahkakoop Cree Developments,” explained Cockrill. “Really a first-of-its-kind partnership in Saskatchewan in the healthcare world.”
He also noted that not all UCCs will be the same, as needs particular to each community will be researched.
“We are doing some pre-engagement, and as well with the second sites for Saskatoon and Regina, we’re doing pre-engagement with the physician communities in those respective areas of the province, understanding what the specific needs are and what the right solution looks like,” Cockrill said. “It’s probably going to look different in North Battleford and Prince Albert and Moose Jaw than what we see in Regina with the first Urgent Care Centre, and that’s okay, because the needs in those communities are different. I live in the Battlefords, what my community needs is going to look a little bit different than what’s on Albert Street (Regina), so it’s important that we’re engaging with physicians, which we’ve been doing now for a couple of months, hearing from them, what they’re seeing, talking to other folks in the Saskatchewan Health Authority and in the community, and making sure that whatever site we pick, whatever kind of model of care we go with for urgent care in those communities, fits with what the community has already. It complements what the community has, but it’s also providing another level of service for residents.”
Communities outside the cities gaining UCC facilities will also notice changes, including physician recruitment.
“I actually think that having more opportunities for areas of practice in the province is a way that we can continue to be more competitive from a recruitment process perspective,” Cockrill said.
“The physicians that I’ve had the opportunity to meet with and talk to, I’m noticing more and more that physicians are looking to have a varied practice in the province, so doing a little bit of this, a little bit of that, being able to keep their skills up in certain areas. I think the opportunity that we have with Urgent Care Centres around the province is for family physicians, obviously, to continue having a patient panel and being able to see patients from a primary care perspective, but then also being able to keep more acute skills up by working in the Urgent Care Centre, not necessarily a full emergency room experience for them, but being able to see patients at a higher level of acuity and make sure that we have those skills built up in our community. Overall, that’s helpful in terms of ensuring that acute services—whether it be in small communities like the southeast or in our major centres- that we have more practitioners that can do that type of work.”
