Still unclear when Regina Urgent Care Centre will open 24-7

There’s still no date as to when the Regina Urgent Care Centre will open 24-7, despite a promise when it opened that hours would be expanded this fall.

When the centre opened, after the Canada Day Long Weekend, the Saskatchewan Health Authority’s COO had said the facility would be open from 8 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. at first in a phased approach to help the authority and staff adapt and improve procedures.

He said the second phase of operations would happen in the fall, with the doors opening 24-7.

This week, the health authority wouldn’t say when the facility would be opening full-time.

In a statement, it said the authority was assessing the first few months of operations, which will help determine when the hours would be expanded. The SHA declined to clarify whether that meant the facility would expand its hours this fall.

The urgent care centres were originally announced as 24-7 facilities in a bid to help with hospital wait times and helping people get treatment for more minor ailments more quickly.

The SHA said more than 14,000 patients have been treated at the urgent care centre since it opened, seeing 113 patients a day on average.

“The UCC is meeting an unmet need in the community, providing a convenient alternative for patients requiring urgent care other than Regina’s Emergency Departments,” the health authority said in a statement.

The health authority is working on an urgent care centre in Saskatoon in a partnership with the Ahtahkakoop Cree Nation.