WRHA clinic hours expanded to take pressure off hospitals

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This article was published 21/09/2022 (825 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority has announced a plan to take some of the pressure off the city’s overwhelmed hospital emergency rooms and urgent care centres.

Starting in November, all five WRHA walk-in clinics around the city will be open evenings and weekends for people who need less urgent care.

“This is going to increase the number of patients and clients that we can serve at these sites,” said Dr. Joss Reimer, WRHA chief medical officer of health, at a news conference Thursday at the Access Fort Garry clinic.

Forty per cent of those who go to a Winnipeg hospital’s urgent care centre or emergency department could receive the health care they need at a walk-in clinic or doctor’s office, said Reimer.

All five WRHA walk-in clinics will be open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. weekdays and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekends and statutory holidays. The expanded hours align with the busiest times at ERs and urgent care centres, said Pat Younger, executive director of WRHA community health services.

The five WRHA walk-in clinics are located at: 135 Plaza Dr., 785 Keewatin St., 280 Booth Dr., 363 McGregor St. and 170 Goulet St.

Care is provided by nurse practitioners, physician assistants and registered nurses. It is not supposed to be a replacement for regular visits with a family doctor, but to help people access care for unexpected health needs when a regular provider is not available, the WRHA said.

Younger said they’re recruiting an additional 1.5 nurse practitioners, one physician’s assistant and 0.5 primary care assistant for each of the five sites to increase capacity.

The added hours will allow for 30 additional appointments per day at each of the five sites, totalling an extra 150 appointments per day. The plan is to redirect people who don’t need to be in the hospital.

As of Thursday, wait times for the five WRHA “walk-in connected care clinics” are posted online at myrightcare.ca.

“Knowing that right now at Access Fort Garry it’s a 15-minute wait is really useful to be able to potentially redirect somebody who would be thinking about going to the Victoria Hospital urgent care centre where it would be a couple of hours’ wait,” said Reimer, offering an example.

Late Thursday afternoon, the myrightcare.ca website showed the wait at the Access NorWest walk-in clinic on Keewatin Street was one hour, compared to 8.25 hours at Health Sciences Centre’s emergency department.

Expanding the hours effective Nov. 1 at all five WRHA walk-in clinics — which currently differ from location to location — should help get the message out, said Reimer.

“We want them to be consistent, predictable hours so people who can’t check on the website are able to know where to go and when these places will be open and able to serve them,” the chief medical officer said.

The expanded walk-in clinic hours are expected to cost an additional $1.4 million annually, the WRHA said.

In 2017, the newly elected Tory government and the health region announced they were closing four QuickCare Clinics to save $900,000. The clinics were staffed primarily by nurse practitioners to treat minor ailments and free up family doctors. They operated on extended hours, including during weekends, evenings and holidays.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca