Gartree Medical Clinic, located in the Vernon Square Mall on 32 Street, is closing it's doors in March 2017.
Image Credit: FILE PHOTO
January 12, 2017 - 11:14 AM
VERNON - Another walk-in clinic is closing its doors in Vernon.
The Gartree Medical Clinic at the Vernon Square Mall will take its last patients on March 24.
It is almost one year to the day that the Vernon Family Doctors Walk-In Clinic closed in March 2016.
Gartree’s office manager Nancy Spiers says they are down to just one physician, who simply cannot run the clinic on his own.
“There was really no choice,” Spiers says.
The clinic requires three doctors to run the clinic full time. Last January, the clinic was forced to shorten to half days as a result of only having two physicians. Now, one of them is away for personal reasons, leaving just one doctor.
“He can’t do it on his own,” Spiers says.
The clinic has operated in its current location since 1991, and before that it was located in the Fruit Union Plaza. Spiers says the decision to close was “very, very difficult.”
“It’s tough, the community needs it,” she says. “There are lineups here every day.”
Patients can get a copy of their medical records for a fee, and Med Records will store the files after the office closes. You can contact the clinic directly at 250-545-9112 for more information.
There are two other medical clinics in Vernon: the North Okanagan Medical Clinic at the Real Canadian Superstore, and the Sterling Centre Clinic, which opened after the Vernon Family Doctors Clinic announced it was closing.
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