Team-based primary care clinic in Penticton receives further donations and a grant

Photo: Contributed

A team-based primary care clinic in Penticton receives further donations and a grant from the Community Foundation. Pictured is SOS Health Care Society Executive Director, Kelly Hawes, and Community Foundation CEO, Aaron McRann.

A non-profit working towards establishing a team-based primary care clinic in Penticton is getting closer to its goal, thanks to a recent boost from the Community Foundation of the South Okanagan Similkameen.

The South Okanagan Similkameen Health Care Society announced on Tuesday that they received a donation and grant — part of a total of $630,000 secured from local donors — to help to relocate an existing walk-in clinic into a much larger space.

The South Okanagan Similkameen Medical Foundation landmark gave them a $1 million donation towards the $2.1 million dollar fundraising goal back in March.

The new space on Skaha Lake Road was granted tax exemption and waived building permit fees by local council, and has since been named the Colleen Schneider Medical Clinic.

Penticton currently has two walk-in clinics and an Interior Health-operated Urgent Primary Care Centre, the latter of which only serves as a walk-in for the public after 5 p.m.

The SOS Division of Family Practice and SOS Health Care Society saw an opportunity with closure of the former Apple Plaza Walk-In Clinic.

The plan is for the walk-in clinic to also be stocked with family physicians, nurse practitioners, and allied health professionals.

“We couldn’t be more pleased to be developing this new community clinic,” Kelly Hawes, the executive director of the society said in a press release.

“It will give our community another great primary care service that will be a legacy for many years.

Aaron McRann, CFSOS CEO, said local donors came forward with extraordinary generosity toward the project.

“Our foundation’s role was to help connect this inspiring local effort with people who wanted to make a difference. The result is a bigger, more innovative clinic, built for and by this community," he said.

This clinic hopes to help tackle the region’s physician shortage and growing number of unattached patients.

“When the Apple Plaza clinic faced the risk of closing, it was community partners who joined us and acted quickly. We are so delighted to see the early work of the Division of Family Practice pay off with the new clinic,” said Tracy St Claire, executive director of South Okanagan Similkameen Division of Family Practice.

The building is undergoing construction to become a long-term, team-based care model that "can serve as a blueprint for other communities facing similar challenges."

To support the ongoing success of this initiative or other primary care initiatives, donors can contribute to the SOS Community Primary Care Clinics Fund through the Community Foundation of the South Okanagan Similkameen.

For more information or to support fundraising efforts for the Community Walk-In Clinic and other primary care initiatives, visit the SOS Community Primary Care Clinics Fund website.