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Vernon’s last walk-in clinic will be closing its doors in the upcoming weeks but the effects could be felt for a long time to come.

The Sterling Centre Clinic is the last walk-in clinic in Vernon and will no longer be available to its patients as of Nov. 15, 2023.

“We worked very hard to avoid this situation and we’re saddened that we’re in this situation,” Dr. Chris Cunningham, from the clinic, said.

The clinic was created to make healthcare accessible to residents who do not have family doctors. Now that the clinic is closing, the future of healthcare accessibility for these residents remains unsure.

“We’re seeing a large group in the community here who are unattached to a primary care provider and who need that care. This group has become larger and larger over time and this clinic sees a majority of the unattached patients of the community because they have nowhere else to go,” Dr. Cunningham says. “I don’t know what the response is. The emergency department is already overcrowded and will become more so, the local (urgent primary care centers) is already unable to handle any more load so I’m not too sure what’s going to happen to these patients.”

The lack of support staff is what caused this closure at the expense of the physicians who wanted to continue offering their services.

Health authorities had been contacted in hopes of finding solutions to keeping the clinic open and continuing the current access to healthcare, but nothing came through, he said.

“We’ve asked for support within the health authority for these physicians: nurses, social workers, all support staff workers. We have a dedicated team of physicians that are willing to put in extra hours to work at the clinic if they have an adequate team to do so,” Dr. Cunningham says. “We’ve been dealing with this and meeting in discussing with (the health authorities) for well over a year and the health authorities know our needs and know what we needed to avoid this situation.”

The lack of healthcare workers has been felt throughout the whole province and country. There are different theories as to causes, and some solutions are being put in place.

“It would come to no one’s surprise that there has been a reduction in healthcare staff over the number of years. Some feel it’s retirement outpacing new entrance into the profession, some feel the pandemic has just had its toll on healthcare providers,” Chris Simms from Interior Health says. “There’s a provincial Health Human Resources Strategy that we’re tying ourselves to that is going to, over time, help this type of issue, and that’s the plan that’s going to be addressing this.”

Between now and implementation, there seems to be few options for residents of Vernon looking for healthcare.

“For patients that are looking for primary care, there’s an 811 service that the public can call to speak to different health professionals - nurse, dietician, exercise professional, pharmacist. Pharmacists are also able to help out with some routine prescription renewal and as of June 1, 2023, the services they can provide have been expanded. If there’s anything serious or urgent calling 911 or going to the Emergency room at the nearest hospital or calling the urgent primary care center in Vernon and getting an appointment there are the best options," Simms says.

The closure of the clinic will come with its own set of consequences for patients and other healthcare institutions.

“We’re going to notice a large population losing access to healthcare, we’re probably going to see additional 811 phone calls occurring, I’m assuming pharmacists will be busier, different urgent primary care centers will see increased calls and requests for appointments and we could see additional visits in the emergency departments as well,” Simms said. “We will be monitoring emergency room visits and we will act accordingly.”

Simms stated he was unable to tell if other walk-in clinics in the Okanagan are also at risk of closing their doors.

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