PRINCE GEORGE – As staffing issues continue across BC Urgent and Primary Care Centres (UPCC) critics are calling for a comprehensive audit to investigate further.
BC Health critic Shirley Bond said an audit of the government-run UPCC’s is overdue with a healthcare system in crisis.
“It’s been years since the NDP started opening UPCCs throughout B.C., and despite all the government’s fanfare, they have still not delivered the results that were promised to British Columbians,” said Bond. “Over and over again we see that UPCCs can’t keep staff, are falling short of their goals to attach patients, and are too often at capacity only a few hours after opening.”
Much like other UPCC’s across BC, data shows the Prince George centre is only 62% staffed with approved full-time employees, the average of UPCC’s across Northern Health is 49% of staffing positions filled as of a report from March 2022.
The BC Nurses Union is in favour of a comprehensive audit because it will add a lot more clarity to what is going on in BC’s health system.
The goal of a UPCC is to divert traffic that would otherwise be headed to emergency departments, although critics and the BCNU say this is not happening in too many cases.
The BC Ministry of Health has not responded to our request for comment.
