Regina's Urgent Care Centre now seeing patients

Regina Urgent Care Centre open for business WATCH: Hallee Mandryk has more on the long anticipated opening of Regina’s first urgent care centre.

Regina’s new Urgent Care Centre is now up and running. The facility, located at 1320 Albert St. had a full parking lot on its first day of operation.

The $18.7 million facility is currently operating from 8:00 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., seven days a week, with plans to operate 24 hours once staffing is fully complimented.

According to the provincial government, staffing is underway and installation of equipment and furnishing will take place over the coming weeks. The facility, once fully staffed, is intended to host 130 employees.

The centre is intended for urgent, non-emergent patients, with non-life-threatening injuries or illnesses.

Executive Director of Acute Care for the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) Tom Stewart said the facility welcomed a steady stream of patients during its inaugural day.

“We’ve had a really steady flow of patients throughout the day. I think as of 3:00 p.m., we’ve seen about 70 patients come in and register to be seen at the clinic," he said. "So we have a great team of staff that are working on site and really happy to be able to deliver this new service.”

"Certainly as we've opened, there's little things we’ve found that we could tweak and adjust, so it’s really given us an opportunity to do those things as we look to progress towards fully opening," he added.

Additionally, the centre is equipped to help those dealing with crisis's relating to mental health and addictions.

The centre has two separate entrances for these different types of care.

The facility also has a designated space for smudging.

Prior to the centre’s opening, the SHA did consult with the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses (SUN) as to how the province could most effectively staff the centre.

“I think it’s probably going to be a challenge seeing as the entire healthcare system has that challenge,” SUN President Tracy Zambory told CTV News.

“We did express some concern about staffing, and they really stepped up and are doing their level best to get fully staffed registered nursing. They have more than what they did before, so we think that’s a step in the right direction.”

NDP Health Critic Vicki Mowat added onto SUN's concerns, claiming that new personnel for certain facilities are actually sourced from within the health care system.

“We’re consistently hearing that they’re actually recruiting from the hospital system, so it’s really just shuffling around human resources at a time when we need more people entering into the system," she said.

Construction of the project began in the spring of 2022, with the provincial government contributing $9.82 million in its 2024-25 budget in addition to ongoing funding of $17.82 million annually.