Trail residents now have access to expanded primary care with the opening of a new community health centre.
The Lower Columbia Community Health Centre, at 106–1101 Dewdney Ave., soft-opened on July 21 and is expected to connect more than 7,200 patients in the area with a family nurse or practitioner once fully operational.
The B.C. government said the facility will also have about 17.9 full-time equivalent clinical staff, plus relief staff, one full-time executive director and a 0.2 full-time medical director.
Currently, there are about 10 full-time equivalent staff working at the site, including:
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3.6 full-time equivalent family physicians
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1.75 full-time equivalent nurse practitioners
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2.5 full-time equivalent social workers
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0.9 full-time equivalent community health worker
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one full-time executive director
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0.2 full-time medical director
The facility is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, and from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Wednesday. On Saturdays it is open from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
It’s operated by the Lower Columbia Community Health Centre Society, a non-profit group that provides holistic and accessible health care in the Kootenay region.
The province provided just over $2 million to launch the centre, most of that will be used for tenant improvements.
Ongoing funding for operations is set at $1.63 million per year
The project was made possible through the collaboration of the Kootenay Boundary Division of Family Practice, Interior Health and the Ministry of Health.
The building is part of the Kootenay Boundary Primary Care Network, which brings together health-care providers throughout the region to improve access to team-based, comprehensive and culturally safe primary care.
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