A new integrated health-care centre in the heart of Sooke will consolidate existing services under one roof while looking to add more positions to its roster.
Offering team-based services to support Sooke and surrounding communities, the new facility will combine the community health centre and the urgent and primary care centre in a future development planned for 6671 Wadams Way. It is expected to open in 2025.
Once open, it will consolidate local primary care services from West Coast Family Medicine Clinic and other local community services into a single location.
The centre will offer various services focusing on primary care, access to mental health and addiction services, and urgent care. The Sooke Region Communities Health Network will operate it.
The team of care providers is expected to include family physicians, nurse practitioners, registered nurses, mental health and substance-use workers and other allied health providers. New staff positions will supplement the existing staff at West Coast Family Medicine Clinic.
“We’re going to be hiring providers to come and live and work in Sooke,” said Mary Dunn, president of Sooke Region Communities Health Network.
The Ministry of Health will also fund an Indigenous cultural safety liaison while planning is underway.
Health Minister Adrian Dix and Langford-Juan de Fuca MLA John Horgan were in Sooke on Thursday for the announcement.
“We will have culturally safe supports, mental health supports, substance abuse services and every other primary care initiative that you can imagine delivered right here,” Horgan said. “We will have clinicians from every discipline delivering the services that people need here.”
Dix noted the additional staff would translate to approximately 25 full-time equivalents. With B.C.’s 2022 Health Human Resources Strategy and the new payment model, he’s confident there will be physicians to staff the centre.
“This is going to be an integrated community system that has been driven by the docs who have wanted to put down roots in Sooke, who have wanted to make sure we can deliver the services people expect here,” Horgan said.
He noted the plan for the centre was doctor and community-driven to address the needs of the area.
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