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New urgent treatment centre set to open

IAN NATHANSON POLITICAL REPORTER ian.nathanson@cbpost.com @CBPost_Ian

NORTH SYDNEY — Northside General will be home to a new urgent health-care treatment facility that opens Nov. 1.

The Northside Urgent Treatment Centre, a retrofit of the hospital’s former emergency room area, aims to provide care for persons who experience unexpected, non-life-threatening health concerns that require treatment on the same day or the following day.

Premier Tim Houston, on hand to tour and announce the new facility, believes this to be a first-of-its-kind facility to open in Nova Scotia.

“This is a good day for health care,” Houston said. “I’m safe to say this is the first urgent treatment centre in the province. There are other jurisdictions in the country that do have similar models, but this is starting here for a lot of reasons. I do believe that you will see this type of centre (opening up later) in other parts of the province. It’s definitely something we heard was needed during our tour of the province.”

The hospital’s emergency department shuttered soon after the province declared a COVID-19 state of emergency near the end of March 2020.

The urgent treatment centre will operate in a different manner from a traditional hospital ER. In the Northside facility, care will be provided for anyone who has nonlife-threatening injuries such as simple fractures, sprains, scratches, minor cuts and minor mental health support.

It will be left up to patients to make an appointment, either for a same-day or next-day service. The centre does not receive patients transported by ambulances for any emergency.

“We’re covering that middle ground in between your family doctor’s office and an emergency department,” said Dr. Joan Salah, a family physician and a co-lead for primary

primary health care for Nova Scotia Health’s eastern zone. “I would still encourage people that if they can get into their family doctor’s office (for an appointment) to go there since that’s the most appropriate place. But in instances where you can’t access your family doctor, then this facility would be a place that you come to and be seen within a few days.”

As far as staffing goes for the new facility, Salah said “for starters, what we’re going to have is for each shift, we’ll have two physicians, three registered nurses and one licensed practical nurse available.”

Dr. Stephanie Langley, another family physician and a primary health care co-lead, added the centre will also serve as an ideal training facility for medical students. “Dr. Salah and I are heavily involved with Dalhousie University as far as a longitudinal curriculum and residency training program. We’ll be taking along our medical students and residents during our shifts here. And that hopefully will get some of them excited to work in our community.”

The premier didn’t elaborate on the cost to build the new facility but emphasized the centre was meant to answer a community need.

“It’s a needed fix right now,” he said. “It’s something that a lot of people have been asking for a long time, and our government is now acting on that need.”

However, with plans already afoot to build a new health centre in Northsde Business Park as part of a Cape Breton Regional Municipality Health Care Redevelopment Project, the premier and hospital staff said the new urgent treatment facility will remain at Northside General

until the new health centre is operational. Salah also noted the urgent treatment centre won’t be limited to Northside residents only.

“This is available as a Cape Breton-wide facility,” she said. “We’re not going to turn people away based on geography.”

The centre will operate Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. and Saturdays from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Patients will be allowed to begin booking on Nov. 1 by phoning 902-794-8966 or arriving at the centre in person for assessment and to determine whether they can get an appointment either later the same day or the following day.

Nova Scotia Health is also set to host a public education session on Thursday at 6 p.m. at the Emera Centre Northside regarding the new centre. Registration will be required due to pandemic restrictions.

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2021-10-26T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-10-26T07:00:00.0000000Z

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