New maternity clinic opens its doors

“That’s probably about half of the work. So we do approximately a thousand births in Prince George every year. Most of those are for people who live in Prince George or around. But we have more and more people from the region who come here to birth.”

With the new maternity clinic, expectant mothers can walk straight in without a referral and that will be a relief for many who have no family physician.

“No one’s turned away, right? So you can be referred by a provider, you can self-refer either in-person or on phone and shortly online,” says Greg Marr, Senior Operations Officer for Northern Health. “That certainly sets it apart. The other thing that we’re trying to establish here is complete wraparound holistic care.”

Marr says the goal over time is to have the clinic become a one-stop-shop for everything maternity for the community and region.

“We’ve got the 14 GP-OB’s who are working out of the clinic along with four midwives. In time, we look to add other team members such as mental health clinicians, lactation consultants and so on.”

For Dr. Brenckman, what’s open now in the Parkwood Mall, is just the tip of the iceberg.

“We need more staff. We need we need a bigger workforce. So, more mental health providers, probably six more nurses. Two more admin staff, lactation support dedicated here every day.”

But that is the future. For now, the new maternity clinic is up and running, seeing hundreds of patients already and plans to expand that family over time.

by Cheryl Jahn

New maternity clinic opens its doors

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