A new urgent care walk-in clinic is coming to Nanaimo on Norwell Dr. by the spring of 2025, a badly needed resource in a growing community which currently only has one very busy walk-in clinic operating at Port Place Shopping Centre. (Ian Holmes/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

urgent & primary care

New urgent and primary care clinic pledged for Nanaimo

Jul 17, 2024 | 3:29 PM

NANAIMO — Help is on the way to address constant long line-ups at Nanaimo’s lone Urgent and Primary Care Centre (UPCC) at Port Place Shopping Centre.

Health Minister Adrian Dix announced at a Wednesday, July 17 news conference that a second UPCC to serve the Nanaimo area would be established at a future clinic located at 3260 Norwell Dr. at Barons Rd. behind Country Club Centre.

“The new UPCC will offer continuity of care and preventative care for patients who do not have a primary care provider and for those who require a period of follow-up supports after leaving the hospital,” Dix said.

He expected the service, to be roughly twice the size of the existing UPCC, is slated to open next spring and that 46 full time equivalent staff members will work out of the site.

The service will be open seven days a week, as does the Port Place Shopping Centre location.

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He’s confident they’ll have the necessary staff in place to meet demand.

“You’ve got train more…improved pathways to internationally trained doctors, a family agreement that is the envy of the whole country, such that we led Canada in recruiting new family doctors, all of that is part of it.”

Dix said the capital investment from the province to fund the new UPCC is $7 million.

Island Health board member and Nanaimo resident Diane Brennan said the future UPCC will build on the staff currently in place at the temporary primary care out-patient clinic the Nanaimo Regional General Hospital, (NRGH) dedicated to those discharged from the hospital without a family doctor.

“The hard-working staff and medical staff who are providing that much-needed primary care at the NRGH temporary clinic, will transition to the new UPCC, and that team will grow even further until the new UPCC is fully staffed with more nurses, nurse practitioners, and doctors as well as social workers, and mental health supports.”

The NRGH temporary clinic opened on June 12, and is available by referral only.

Island Health will occupy the entire building, which is expected to see 50,000 annual patient visits, with a tentative opening date of spring 2025.

The Port Place UPCC sees around 21,000 patients per year, while the Barons Rd. location is expected to handle around 50,000 annual visits.

Brennan said the new UPCC will provide wrap-around care for Nanaimo resident’s primary care needs.

“From prevention of illness to diagnosis, to treatment, all from a dedicated team of healthcare professionals who work together to seamlessly connect their patient’s care needs, and provide timely access to integrated comprehensive, culturally-safe and trauma-informed primary care.”

Contractors are currently refurbishing the building which was badly damaged following a parkade fire in May of last year, displacing several tenants.

(Ian Holmes/NanaimoNewsNOW)

Aimed toward providing same-day care for non-life-threatening health concerns, the Medical Arts UPCC at Port Place opened in 2019.

The south Nanaimo facility, open seven days a week, often sees long line-ups of people, some of which don’t have access to a family doctor.

There are 35 UPCC locations in the province, including eight in the Island Health region.

B.C. health minister Adrian Dix was in Nanaimo on Wednesday, July 17 to announce a new walk-in clinic will be coming to central Nanaimo. (Ian Holmes/NanaimoNewsNOW)

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