Newcomer clinic opens at CBU

SYDNEY — The Cape Breton Newcomer Primary Care Clinic has opened at Cape Breton University.

The clinic located in the Nancy Dingwall Health and Counselling Centre opened Friday to provide primary care to those who have moved to Canada within the last five years.

Clinic users must also live in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality and be without a primary care provider.

"We know that without this sort of access, people visit our emergency departments unnecessarily, so our hope is to reduce that need for this rapidly growing population of newcomers by ensuring they have timely access to the right level of care,” said Sarah O’Brien, director of Primary Health Care, eastern zone, Nova Scotia Health, in a press release.

The clinic is partnered with Nova Scotia Health and CBU and differs from other primary care clinics in that patients are not required to register on the Need a Family Practice Registry, and initial appointments are made through referrals from community partners such as the Cape Breton Island Centre for Immigration, YREACH Settlement Service, Cape Breton Victoria Regional Centre for Education, as well as Nova Scotia Health programs and services.

“The Nancy Dingwall Health and Counselling Centre has had the honour of providing primary health care and mental health support to students who are new to Canada,” said Judy Kelley, director of health and counselling at CBU, in a press release.

“We learned about their health-care needs and what their health-care system looked like in their home country. This information helped us hone our expertise in newcomer health."

Language interpretation services, and extended clinic appointment times will ensure families are well taken care of and will take pressure off of urgent and emergency care centres, she added.

The CBU clinic is part of 17 new or strengthened clinics announced for the eastern zone of the Nova Scotia Health Authority by the provincial government in May.

It is open Monday, Tuesday and Thursday from 8:30 a.m. until 8:30 p.m. and Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday from 8:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m.

In 2024 it will relocate to the Canada Games Complex as part of the facilities’ revitalization.