Medical clinic scheduled to open in Market Mall spot

Health facility aimed at older adults to move into former liquor store

Months after a former health executive mused about opening a new medical clinic in Market Mall, the Saskatchewan Health Authority is planning to do exactly that.

Procurement documents show the new organization plans to convert the now-shuttered Saskatchewan Liquor and Gaming Authority store in Saskatchewan’s first indoor shopping mall into a community health centre.

The public tender indicates that the health authority expects the general contractor to begin construction — an extensive process that includes concrete, electrical and mechanical work — at the end of June and finish before Oct. 19.

Suzanne Mahaffey, the health authority’s executive director of primary health care in Saskatoon, confirmed that the clinic — targeted towards people aged 50 and over — will open sometime this fall.

The clinic is expected to cost about $3 million to build and $2 million to run each year and will be staffed by 89 people — physicians, nurse practitioners, paramedics, social workers, occupational and physical therapists and administrators, she said.

“It’s one of the strategies … to reduce the wait times for people who maybe don’t need to go to the hospital for service and, for those that are in the hospital, to bring them home sooner to finish their medical course of care.”

According to the Canadian Institute for Health Information, 90 per cent of emergency room patients in Saskatchewan are discharged or admitted to hospital within 10.1 hours — almost a third longer than the national average.

Dan Florizone, who ran the Saskatoon Health Region until it was amalgamated into the new health authority last year, told the Saskatoon StarPhoenix last August that he hoped to have a new clinic in the area open in less than a year.

“We know that the Nutana area and that focal point around Market Mall is an area of huge opportunity,” Florizone said, adding that the clinic — a location for which had yet to be determined — would keep people out of hospitals

“Given the age of the population, the care needs and the supports we can provide at home or close to home, it’s a perfect location,” Florizone said at the time.

Taylor Brown, a spokesman for mall owner Strathallen Capital Corp., said in an email that the addition of a medical clinic aligns with the Toronto-based real estate firm’s vision for the mall.

“Our vision continues to be transforming Market Mall into a ‘community hub’ of sorts, offering an array of alternative services to the Saskatoon community,” Brown said.