A new health care service facility will soon open in uptown Port Alberni. The facility is expected to ease the strain on a local healthcare system that suffers from insufficient family physicians to serve the population and long wait lines at the hospital emergency room and walk-in clinics.
The Indigenous Community Health Centre (ICHC) was developed through a partnership involving the Port Alberni Friendship Center, Port Alberni Primary Care Network, Island Health, and the BC Ministry of Health. According to PAFC Executive Director Cyndi Stevens, the ICHC aims to enhance primary health care services in the region as part of the Ministry of Health's Primary Care Strategy.
Located in a convenient uptown Port Alberni location, the ICHC, when it opens, will provide comprehensive, team-based, culturally safe primary care services for 4,150 unattached patients in Port Alberni. An unattached patient is someone who does not have a primary care provider, such as a family doctor or nurse practitioner. Without a consistent, long-term relationship with a clinician who manages their ongoing health history, referrals, and preventive care, these patients must rely on hospital emergency care or walk-in clinics. The new clinic will be open to any unattached patients in Port Alberni, as those in need are not required to have Indigenous ancestry.
This past of a province-wide effort from health officials, Indigenous agencies and community partners to establish primary care networks (PCNs).
Part of that work includes the development of Port Alberni’s ICHC. According to Stevens, the primary care clinic at the ICHC will deliver comprehensive, long-term primary care services to individuals of all ages within the Port Alberni region.
“To qualify, patients must reside in the area and currently lack attachment to a primary care provider. The clinic aims to attach 2,100 patients to either a nurse practitioner or family physician, who will be supported by an interdisciplinary team of registered nurses (RNs) and allied health professionals,” Stevens wrote in an email.
There will be more than 20 full-time equivalent health care professionals working on site in Primary Care Health, Mental Health, and Substance Use programs areas.
In addition to health care services on site, there will be a Mobile Health Unit that will deliver services on an outreach basis. The MHU is designed to serve the unsheltered population, local social service organizations, and First Nations communities by providing regularly scheduled visits to "meet the community where they are,” Stevens said.
The focus of the MHU is to eliminate barriers to accessing care, offering primary health services to patients who may struggle to attend the ICHC due to challenges such as poverty, mental health issues, or transportation difficulties.
A cleansing and groundbreaking ceremony was held at the 2889 3rd Avenue location on April 8.
Built in the 1940s, the vacant building started out as Woodwards gas station and automotive shop. Over the decades it housed a video rental store and finally a furniture store. The old building will be getting a major facelift before it is open to patients in early 2027.
