Local GPs to be asked to back Westside bid for urgent-care centre

Family doctors will be asked to support West Kelowna’s campaign for an urgent-care facility.

City council agreed this week to try to enlist the support of the Central Okanagan Division of Family Practice, which represents local GPs.

City administrator Jim Zaffino told council he had spoken with provincial health officials and representatives of Interior Health about the municipality’s hopes for an urgent-care facility.

Those preliminary discussions, he said, were encouraging, but the campaign would have a greater chance of success if family doctors came on board.

“Their support would mean a lot and go a long ways toward starting the process for an urgent-care facility,” Zaffino said.

Mayor Doug Findlater said he had also spoken about the proposed urgent-care facility with Kelowna West MLA Ben Stewart, who he said was supportive of the idea.

Findlater acknowledged that Stewart, as a member of the Opposition Liberals, was not in a decisionmaking role. But he said Stewart nevertheless had a good working relationship with NDP Health Minister Adrian Dix.

At an urgent-care centre, doctors work in a team with nurses and other health-care professionals to provide services broader than those available in a walk-in clinic. The centres attract a new generation of doctors who want to focus on delivering medical care rather than running their own offices.

Many communities with a smaller population than the 50,000 people who reside on the Westside already have urgent-care cities. That list includes Summerland, Oliver and Princeton.

In early April, Dix told The Daily Courier that Kelowna would be an “ideal community” for an urgent-care facility, in part because it would relieve pressure on Kelowna General Hospital.

West Kelowna council members say their city is a better location for such a centre because the community is currently underserved in terms of medical facilities. Having such a centre on the Westside, they say, would lessen the need for many people to drive into Kelowna for medical attention.