(ASHLEY LEGASSIC - REPORTER / iNFOnews.ca)

KAMLOOPS - The province's first urgent primary care centre is hoping to serve more patients who don't have a family doctor or nurse practitioner in Kamloops.

Located near Royal Inland Hospital, the centre opened the doors to its Family Practice Learning Centre last week, according to a media release from the Ministry of Health.

The Family Practice Learning Centre is another addition to the facility, which will provide immediate health care to patients, says the release.

"This is another step in how we are improving access to primary health care in the Thompson-Okanagan region immediately, and over the longer term," Health Minister Adrian Dix says in the release. "The Family Practice Learning Centre is a first of its kind that pairs people without a primary care provider with University of British Columbia family medicine residents to receive ongoing team-based care and treatment."

The new centre is located near the Urgent Primary Care Centre next to Royal Inland Hospital. Dix says the learning centre increases the opportunities for medical residents to be trained and supported in Kamloops.

"This provides the foundation for these new physicians to continue serving patients in this region going forward," he says.

The official launch of the urgent primary care centre was June 12. Since then, the centre has seen 959 patients. The learning centre opened Aug. 27 and has seen 32 patients since then. Patients accessing physicians at the learning centre also have access to registered nurses, practical nurses, physiotherapists and social workers.

"Training in a community is a powerful incentive for young physicians to stay and build their practice in that community," Doug Cochrane, Interior Health board chair says in the release. "This learning centre will improve services for patients currently without doctors in Kamloops by attaching them to a clinic where there is coordinated, comprehensive and quality care provided through team-based care."

The learning centre will operate Monday through Thursday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and is located at 311 Columbia St. The urgent primary care centre is one of 10 urgent primary care centres planned for B.C.

For more information on how the urgent primary care centre works, go here.

To learn more about the provincial government's strategy on primary health-care go here.

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