The Nexus Primary Care Clinic opens gradually starting Tuesday, June 30. (Spencer Sterritt/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By Spencer Sterritt

MUCH NEEDED HELP

New nurse practitioner clinic in south Nanaimo to help 6,800 without a family doctor

Jun 29, 2020 | 3:56 PM

NANAIMO — There’s help on the horizon for thousands of Nanaimo residents without a family doctor.

A new primary care clinic fully staffed by nurse practitioners opens on Tuesday, June 30 with two nurse practitioners. When it’s fully staffed in mid-September, the clinic in the South Parkway Plaza will have six nurse practitioners, two registered nurses, one social worker and mental health clinicians.

Clinical director Kari Jonker said the clinic will offer relief to the roughly 20,000 people in Nanaimo who are without a family doctor.

“We will be able to attach about 6,800 people over a period of three years,” she told NanaimoNewsNOW.

“There’s a lot of parts of primary care you can’t get from just going to walk-in clinics. We can diagnose conditions, prescribe medications, refer to specialists, manage chronic disease. There’s no capacity for that in a walk-in or sporadic one-time visit.”

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The clinic is the first of its kind to open in B.C., established as a non-profit society with approximately $2 million in provincial government funding.

Jonker said she expects similar clinics will open in the future to ease the burden on the health care system.

“There’s just so many people in British Columbia that don’t have a provider. There’s a lot of people who are retiring and the number of doctors needed aren’t going to cover the number of people who need doctors. There’s place in our system for family physicians and primary care family nurse practitioners.”

The clinic will be open every day during the week from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., except 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Wednesday and Thursday.

Hours are expected to be expanded to include evenings and Saturdays once it’s fully staffed in mid-September.

More information is available on the clinic’s Facebook page.

spencer@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @SpencerSterritt