Finding time for a doctor’s appointment is going to be a little easier.
The Wood Buffalo Primary Care Network is opening a new after-hours health care clinic tomorrow in the River City Centre downtown.
Spokesperson Jordan Hiltunen says it’s the first of its kind in Fort McMurray because this region has special needs.
“We decided to try and customize our health care services in order to meet the needs of our population,” he said. “So one of the biggest problems we’ve had, is people who don’t necessarily have the availability to access health care services during the day.”
Hiltunen says lots of shift workers were using the hospital for care that clinics could have supported.
He adds the shift workers had nowhere else to go, so this new clinic should help alleviate the emergency room at the hospital.
“You try to tell a site worker, ‘We expect you to abide to the design of our health care system’, when they themselves have no way to access it; that would be inappropriate,” he explained.
Hiltunen says it will also start to eliminate the myth that there are no available family physicians in town.
He says if you have a family doctor, great.
“If however, you show up, and you don’t have a family physician, in order to get service, in order to receive care, you have to agree to sign up with a local family physician,” he said.
“It’s completely free, but this way we can assure that no one’s seen once, and left to fall through the cracks.”
The clinic will not prescribe narcotics (e.g., Oxycontin), but will definitely prescribe prescriptions (e.g., penicillin).
The new clinic will be open weekdays from 5 PM till 10 PM, and weekends from 10AM till 10PM.
CLICK HERE for directions.
CLICK HERE for the Wood Buffalo Primary Care Network’s website.
April 2nd, 2013
