Vancouver Coastal Health to open Urgent Care Centre clinic in Yaletown
Downtown Vancouver’s Yaletown district will be getting its very own Urgent and Primary Care Centre (UPCC).
A new development application has been submitted by Chernoff Thompson Architects on behalf of VCH to build the clinic at 188 Nelson Street — the southwest corner of the intersection of Nelson and Cambie streets, near the Cambie Bridge’s southbound ramp.
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The almost 11,000 sq ft ground-level space was up until recently occupied by Languages Across Borders.
“The space will operate as an urgent and primary care centre outfitted with offices, exam waiting areas, and consultation rooms, as well as staff support spaces operated by Vancouver Coastal Health,” reads the application.
“The intent of these centres is to address gaps in access to primary care within their geographic area of service by offering same-day access to team-based urgent primary care and support attachment to comprehensive longitudinal primary care in partnership with Divisions of Family Practice.”
Essentially, UPCCs help address the ongoing shortage of family doctors and are intended to help reduce the number of visits to hospital emergency rooms (ER), effectively freeing up ER capacity for more severe cases.
Similar to other UPCC locations, it will be operated by a team of about 20 to 25 staff, including physicians, nurse practitioners, nurses, and social workers.
Location of the future Yaletown Urgent and Primary Care Centre (UPCC) at 188 Nelson Street, Vancouver. (Google Maps)
The application states this particular location is ideally situated to serve residents living in the “Vancouver City Centre” area, and it is within close walking distance to SkyTrain’s Yaletown-Roundhouse and Stadium-Chinatown stations.
The opening of the UPCC in Yaletown coincides with the planned redevelopment of the building where the 2018-opened City Centre Urgent Primary Care Centre is located. In 2022, the rezoning application to turn 1290 Hornby Street into a 35-storey condominium tower was approved.
In an email to Daily Hive Urbanized, VCH confirmed that City Centre UPCC “has been identified for redevelopment, and the health authority is actively exploring new location options for this clinic,” which comes short of officially confirming that the UPCC in Yaletown will be the replacement for City Centre UPCC.
Within VCH jurisdiction, other UPCC locations include Reach UPCC at 1145 Commercial Drive, Southeast UPCC at 5880 Victoria Drive, Northeast UPCC 2788 East Hastings Street, North Vancouver UPCC at 221 West Esplanade, and Richmond City Centre UPCC at 4671 No. 3 Road.
Inside the North Vancouver Urgent and Primary Care Centre at 221 West Esplanade. (Bowinn Ma/Twitter)
- You might also like:
- 35-storey condo tower to replace Vancouver City Centre Urgent Primary Care Centre
- Lease for controversial Yaletown overdose prevention site to end
- Construction begins on Surrey's new $2.9 billion Cloverdale hospital
- Construction underway on new $2.2 billion St. Paul's Hospital (RENDERINGS)