Cloverdale to get new primary care facility

15-room hospice in Langley to be ready by summer 2021

Cloverdale will soon get a primary nurse-practitioner health care centre, while construction begins on a new hospice in Langley, the B.C. government announced Friday.

Health Minister Adrian Dix revealed the plans during two news conferences Friday, one in Surrey and the other in Langley.

The Axis Primary Care Clinic, a nurse-practitioner centre on 176th Street in Surrey, is near completion and will begin taking patient applications as early as Monday.

The centre will open Sept. 8, with COVID-19 safety protocols in place.

It will provide new client intake, chronic disease management, including asthma and diabetes, pregnancy prenatal and postnatal care, medication refills and referrals to medical specialists, Dix said.

The clinic will also provide access to primary health care to patients with mental health problems and addictions.

Dix said the new centre will provide an opportunity for more people in Surrey to have access to a primary care provider.

“The clinics are a patient-centred solution to improving access to the everyday health care, and we know that compared to other jurisdictions in Canada, B.C. has not made the best use of nurse practitioners,” he said.

The B.C. government will provide annual operating funding of approximately $2 million, as well as one-time startup costs of $754,400.

This is the second nurse-practitioner primary care clinic to be announced in the province under the primary care strategy.

The first opened in Nanaimo in June.

Meantime, construction is starting this month on a new 15-room hospice residence in Langley located at 219A Street and 52 Avenue.

The government is providing $5 million toward the hospice, while the Langley Hospice Society is providing $2.28 million through community support and donations.

The B.C. Centre for Palliative Care will contribute $900,000 and the Township of Langley is providing $219,000, according to Dix.

It is expected the new hospice will be ready by the summer of 2021, and will replace the 10 hospice beds at the Langley Memorial Hospital.