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The new permanent location of Richmond's urgent and primary care centre is on No. 3 Road.

Photo by Hannah Scott

Richmond’s temporary urgent and primary care centre will be replaced by a new permanent location starting next week.

Photo by Hannah Scott

New urgent and primary care centre opens in Richmond

By Richmond Sentinel

Published 1:47 PDT, Wed April 20, 2022

Last Updated: 2:26 PDT, Wed April 20, 2022

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Richmond’s new urgent and primary care centre (UPCC) will open next Monday (April 25). It replaces the temporary location, which opened in April 2021.

The centre’s new permanent location is 110–4671 No. 3 Rd. Its hours will be 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday to Saturday and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sundays. Statutory holidays will follow the same service hours.

"The new Richmond City Centre UPCC will connect residents in Richmond with quality same-day, everyday health care when they need it," said Health Minister Adrian Dix. "We are working with our partners to meet the growing primary care needs of people in the Lower Mainland and throughout British Columbia."

The new Richmond UPCC is the 28th location announced under the government's primary care strategy. It is a collaboration between Vancouver Coastal Health, the Ministry of Health, the Richmond Division of Family Practice, and other community partners. It is part of the Richmond Primary Care Network.

The UPCC will be approximately 580 square metres (6,324 square feet) and will include a reception, consultation room, triage/assessment room, and eight exam rooms, along with additional areas to aid with patient flow and treatment. Patients requiring laboratory testing and medical imaging can access these services on-site. Total capital costs for the UPCC are estimated to be $5.3 million.

This UPCC will serve two purposes. First, it will provide urgent primary care for people with non-life-threatening conditions who need to see a health-care provider within 12 to 24 hours but do not require an emergency department, such as sprains, cuts, high fevers, and minor infections.

The centre will be full service, including on-site and outpatient access to X-ray services. The health-care team at the permanent site will be made up of approximately 33 full-time-equivalent health-care workers, including family physicians, nurse practitioners, registered nurses, and a social worker.

Second, centre staff will work with the Richmond Division of Family Practice to help attach patients to a regular primary care provider. It will provide ongoing wraparound care for unattached patients while they arrange for patients to be connected to other local practices for their longitudinal care.

"I'm excited that many people and their families living in Richmond will have better access to team-based care, including mental health and addictions," said Richmond–Queensborough MLA Aman Singh. "It's also important that they get attached to a primary care provider if they do not have one."

The Richmond UPCC will have an "interpreter on wheels" consisting of an interpreter app on an iPad with amplifier. The app supports many languages with a live interpreter on voice or video. If needed, an in-person interpreter can be requested.

Longitudinal primary care services are expected to begin by fall 2022 and will be available Monday to Sunday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. These services will include allied health services such as social work, dieticians, and mental-health supports, as well as medical diagnostics.

People in need of support for complex and chronic conditions, including mental-health and substance use supports, will have better access to the right care from the right provider with improved connections to specialized services provided by the health authority, particularly opioid agonist treatment.

The temporary UPCC in Richmond had 13,000 visits during the year it was open, Dix said.

The following chronic conditions are the most prevalent in the Richmond Local Health Area: hypertension, diabetes, osteoporosis, asthma, and ischemic heart disease. Approximately 32.5 per cent of visits to the Richmond General Hospital's emergency department in 2020-21 were triaged as relatively low acuity. Many of these visits could be dealt with in alternative settings, such as an UPCC.