SHA says new Urgent Care Centre has helped take pressure off Regina ERs over 6 weeks

Regina's new Urgent Care Centre has now had its doors open for six weeks, and the Saskatchewan Health Authority says the centre has taken some pressure off both emergency rooms in the city, with wait times dropping. 

Since it opened in early July, more than 4,400 hundred patients have been served. The daily average is 107 patients, according to the health authority. 

"The first six weeks of operations have been really busy, with high demand for urgent care services," said Sheila Anderson, SHA vice-president of Integrated Regina Health, at a press conference in Regina Wednesday afternoon.

The most common issues the centre sees include abdominal pain, cough and congestion, cuts requiring stitches and suspected broken bones in need of X-Rays.The urgent care centre has also seen patients in need of mental health and addictions supports.

The SHA said it does sometimes have to turn people away before its official 9:30 p.m. closing time.

"We want to ensure that all patients that are presenting and then being registered are able to be seen before the staff end their shifts and the site closes overnight. So we do have a daily process where we assess when we're reaching capacity," said Thomas Stewart, SHA executive director of acute care at Integrated Regina Health.

"Then if we aren't going to be able to see them within the hours that the centre is open, we will then redirect those patients to either one of the emergency departments if they're needing to take care of [the issue] that day, or certainly they could follow up with their family doctor or come to the centre again when it opens the next day."

Stewart said the busiest hours for the centre tend to be in the morning, and wait times hover between one to two hours. However, he said wait times, in general, are always going to fluctuate. 

"First of all, based on just the sheer number of patients that are presenting, which is going to ebb and flow and go up and down kind of every hour of the day. And also in how sick or how acute patients who are there are presenting."

In the meantime, Stewart said that even though the Urgent Care Centre has only been open for six weeks, the SHA has seen some reduction in pressures in both of Regina's emergency departments. That includes improved wait times.

It's "something we'll have to be monitoring. And as urgent care or emergent care at an emergency department does ebb and flow, it's going to be a little bit different," said Stewart.

"Thankfully, I haven't heard of any 13-hour waits recently in our emergency departments. And we were certainly challenged last fall and into December."

Respiratory-related illnesses expected to climb

The health authority said it expects the needs of patients to shift with the seasons, as influenza and COVID-19 cases become more common. 

"We do expect that we will see some sort of natural shift that normally goes with the seasonal injuries that people sustain. We see more things related to summer activities than in the fall," Stewart said.

"Those do really shift to more of respiratory things. So we are continuing to monitor both the acuity of patients coming in as well as what they're coming in with to really get an understanding of how the public is using their Urgent Care Centre," said Stewart, adding that the SHA will then make the necessary adjustments in how the centre works during flu and COVID-19 season.

The Urgent Care Centre does have a number of private rooms.

"So we will be able to isolate patients appropriately If we're seeing some of those things such as flu and COVID coming in that needs that isolation to ensure that everyone can be safe in the in the site."

The SHA said it's still working to recruit physicians for the Urgent Care Centre. However, it said it is still also working toward having the centre open 24/7 sometime in the fall.