Closure of last walk-in clinic in Vernon, B.C., leaves some residents worried about access to care

The last walk-in clinic in Vernon, B.C., will shut its doors permanently next month, leaving some residents in the Okanagan city worried about a lack of options for medical treatment. 

The Sterling Centre Clinic announced it will close permanently on Nov. 15 due to a shortage of support staff. The announcement came a couple of weeks after another walk-in clinic, Primacy North Okanagan Medical, Clinic, shuttered on Sept. 30. 

Vernon resident Rebecca Ciccone said it's "scary" to not have a walk-in clinic in the city, especially for those like her who have yet to find a family doctor. 

"I don't want to have to go to the emergency for something that might not be an emergency," Ciccone said. "But if my daughter gets sick and I am concerned, what am I supposed to do?"

Dr. Chris Cunningham, a physician at Sterling Centre Clinic, says they have seen a growing number of unattached patients. 

Physicians are coming out of retirement and giving up their off-hours to serve patients at the clinic, he said. 

"But the small dedicated group of physicians can no longer be tasked to look after this entire health-care need on their own without proper support," he added. 

The closure leaves some residents in Vernon and other parts of the region relying on Vernon Jubilee Hospital for urgent health-care needs or Vernon's urgent and primary care centre (UPCC), both of which are already stretched thin, says Cunningham.

"The UPCC clinic has clearly shown that it cannot handle the volume of patients needing primary care, and the emergency department is already overloaded," he said. 

Chris Simms, Interior Health's executive director of clinical operations, North Okanagan, said there are options. 

"People can call 811 and they'll get connected with a health-service navigator," he said in a telephone interview with CBC. "And through that navigator they can access health services through a nurse, a dietitian, exercise professionals, pharmacists."

Simms said pharmacists can assist with routine and emergency prescription renewals, and prescribe drugs for up to 21 minor ailments, as well as contraception.

More support staff needed, says doctor

The province provided $76,000 to the Sterling Centre Clinic in the last six months as stabilization funds, B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix said in an interview with CBC News.

But Cunningham said the clinic isn't looking for additional funding.

"We are asking for the authorities to assist by providing some support by redeploying support staff like nurse practitioners, registered nurses, mental health workers," he said. 

"The patients here have diverse and often complicated medical conditions that are best managed by a primary family physician or by a small team-based care team, not an isolated physician in an episodic setting with no other health-care support staff."

When asked by CBC News why additional staff were not deployed to the clinic, Dix said "there isn't a special source of money for this clinic, but there are a lot of resources that have been put in place to support it." 

Interior Health said it hasn't deployed additional staff to the North Okanagan. 

"We weren't aware of providing support staff but we were looking to provide additional funding to the clinic," Simms said.

Vernon Coun. Teresa Durning said more should have been done to stop the clinic from closing. 

"I understand that our provincial government is battling at the 11th hour to ensure walk-in service continues but it's too bad that this wasn't addressed before there was a crisis," she said in a statement to CBC News. 

Ciccone said she dreads thinking about going to the ER.

"We will just sit and take up spots of someone who you know is needing an emergency care at the hospital," she said. "It's a massive problem and it needs to be dealt with."