People living in Sooke and the surrounding area will benefit from a new integrated health-care centre offering team-based services in the heart of Sooke village.
The new centre is the latest in a series of investments over the past six years to build capacity and improve health-care services for residents in Sooke.
“Improving access to health-care services for people in B.C. is a key priority for our government,” said John Horgan, MLA for Langford-Juan de Fuca. “This centre will be critical to meeting the health-care needs of people living in Sooke and surrounding areas, now and in the future, and I am proud that people in the region will soon benefit from being able to access the care they need, close to home.”
The new facility will combine the community health centre (CHC) and urgent- and primary-care centre (UPCC) at a future development planned for 6671 Wadams Way.
Once open, the CHC/UPCC centre will consolidate local primary-care services from West Coast Family Medical Clinic and other local community services into a single location, making it easier for people to access the health services they need. This will be done by better connecting more people to integrated health-care services in the community, such as primary care, culturally safe supports and mental-health and substance-use services.
“This new integrated health-care facility will connect people in the community to a range of health-care services, including primary care, urgent care and community health services all under one roof,” said Adrian Dix, Minister of Health. “Integrating physicians into a community-based primary-care model means more time for patients, more patients accessing health-care services and less administrative burden for practitioners. This is part of our continuing work to build increased and improved access to primary health care for people in Sooke.”
The team of clinical providers is expected to include family physicians, nurse practitioners, registered nurses, mental-health and substance-use workers and other allied health providers. The new staff will supplement the existing staff working at West Coast Family Medical Clinic.
The ministry is also providing funding to hire an Indigenous cultural safety liaison to support the project while planning is underway.
Over the past six years, government has made significant investments in building health-care service capacity to support growing demand and the high-use rate of health services in the Sooke region. Investments include increased mental-health counselling and home support services, $1 million in funding to further support team-based care and $600,000 in funding to expand and improve the West Coast Family Medical Clinic, and $10.5 million to establish the Western Communities Primary Care Network. These investments were made based on significant local engagement.
The new facility will be community-governed and operated by the Sooke Region Communities Health Network and is expected to join the provincial rostering system to ensure patient care continuity and attachment initiative announced in 2022 as part of the new payment model for family physicians.
