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September 12, 2018 - 4:09 PM
KAMLOOPS - There are still more than 2,000 Kamloops residents waiting for a primary care provider, but most people on the wait list for a family doctor have been connected.
According to the Ministry of Health, nearly 8,200 people on the Health Link B.C. 811 wait list for Kamloops have been attached to a primary care provider. That's up from roughly 5,000 people at the beginning of the year.
There are still just over 2,200 people left on the wait list, which is down from the highest number of 7,007 at the end of last August.
That number is expected to drop even more with the addition of the new Urgent Primary Care and Family Practice Learning Centre that opened earlier this year near Royal Inland Hospital. The learning centre will have primary care providers, whether it's a nurse practitioner or family doctor, who will be attached to patients still on the list.
"Patients will be referred through the HealthLink B.C. Kamloops wait list, with priority going to people who don’t have a family doctor or nurse practitioner, but who have an illness or injury that requires immediate ongoing care," the ministry says in an email statement.
The new centre is in addition to the North Shore Primary Care Centre which opened last year, and has family doctors and nurse practitioners who have a patient list.
Sun Peaks Mayor Al Raine told iNFOnews.ca last month that several Kamloops residents have also registered as patients at the ski resort village's health centre.
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