Telus expands its mobile health unit to help the country’s homeless
Telus Health is expanding its mobile health “clinics-onwheels” program providing primary health care to homeless and vulnerable people in major cities across Canada as part of its decade-long foray into the health-care field.
On Wednesday, Telus president Darren Entwistle is expected to announce plans to commit $5 million over the next few years to roll out seven more mobile clinics across Canada, in addition to three operating in Vancouver, Victoria and Montreal.
The goal is to have up to 10 vans operating by the end of 2019, providing care to more than 20,000 Canadians annually who may not seek out traditional health-care services and typically lack documented medical history, said Juggy Sihota, vice-president for consumer health for Telus.
“A lot of the marginalized population they are (for a variety of reasons) not readily coming back to the healthcare system,” she said. “Usually it’s (urgent) care they’re requiring and we try to help them have healthier lives by bringing them back to the health-care system and providing care they need.”
Two of the new mobile clinics will be in Alberta, set to open early next year. Telus is considering adding a second van to Vancouver. Other locations under consideration include Surrey, Winnipeg, Halifax and the Greater Toronto Area.
In Victoria and Montreal, the Health for Good program, as it’s called, partnered with non-profit Doctors of the World, which staffs the clinics with volunteer doctors and nurses. The Vancouver clinic, which began operating two months ago, uses a different model.
Telus partnered with Vancouver Coastal Health and the VGH and UBC Hospital Foundation to staff the clinic with an intensive case-management team focused on helping women and children. The staffing by paid health-authority employees is supported by a $3-million donation to the foundation.
“You are taking the current health-care system and making it more flexible and more mobile so you can treat patients where they need the help,” said Sihota, noting that the company values having different partners and service-delivery models in the program. “There are merits to all of these models, whether it’s government-supported or volunteer-supported.”
The mobile clinics are equipped with Telus Health’s electronic medical-record technology and Wi-Fi network. The van has an area for patient reception and nursing care, and an area for an examination table and doctor’s workstation. Equipment and supplies on-board include a blood-pressure machine, emergency and harm-reduction supplies, and a vaccination fridge.
Telus recently purchased Medisys, a national chain of corporate and employee health clinics, for over $100 million and offered a smartphone app called Babylon that helps diagnose medical conditions and link patients to doctors through secure video-conference calls.