New Kensington walk-in clinic a welcome addition to central P.E.I.

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KENSINGTON, P.E.I. — Kensington residents looking for acute care have a brand new useful resource at their disposal – one nearer to house.

On Aug. 23, a brand new walk-in clinic opened within the native Murphy’s Pharmacy, to the enjoyment of Mayor Rowan Caseley.

“After I heard about it I believed, ‘That’s nice,’” he mentioned. “I feel that’s badly wanted, and we’d like extra of them. I used to be really happy to see that they put one in Kensington.”

Derek Tweel, director of operations for Atlantic Medical Centres – which is collaborating with the physicians to function the clinic – agreed that there was a necessity for such a service within the city.

“There was a necessity for some acute care in Kensington and space,” he mentioned. “We thought this was an ideal concept and an ideal collaboration between a bunch of physicians who care about that space very a lot.”

At current, the clinic has three physicians, although Tweel is optimistic that quantity will enhance.

Tweel mentioned there shall be a mix of morning, afternoon and weekend clinics – 4 to 5 clinics every week, starting from two to 4 hours every.

Physicians shall be geared up to deal with illnesses from infections and sore throats, to ear or eye points.

“It’s an acute care clinic, so it’s not one thing that, you probably have a continual illness, that the physicians will enable you with there.”

At the moment, it’s walk-in primarily based, however Tweel mentioned they’re open to scheduling appointments on-line sooner or later because the clinic grows.

The primary clinic was held on Aug. 23, which Tweel mentioned went nice.

“We barely marketed, as a result of it was sort of our take a look at run, and we nonetheless had an ideal turn-out and actually constructive suggestions from the group, the those that got here to the clinic,” he mentioned. “We’re actually enthusiastic about it, the city’s buzzing about it, so I feel it’ll be nice for everybody.”

In an emailed assertion to SaltWire, Well being P.E.I. mentioned that it welcomes further providers whereas the province’s well being care system is strained and hospitals are stuffed.

Such providers, like walk-in clinics, might help present Islanders and not using a household physician with entry to main care.

“As we construct on our Affected person Medical Houses and renew main care on P.E.I., walk-in clinics play a task in offering entry to individuals who don’t but have a main care supplier, serving to them keep away from going to an emergency division for non-urgent care,” the assertion learn.

Kristin Gardiner is a reporter with SaltWire in Prince Edward Island. She could be reached by electronic mail at [email protected] and adopted on X @KristinGardiner.