Physician gap forces Airdrie urgent care centre to limit weekend hours
CBC
The urgent care department at the Airdrie Community Health Centre will close from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays for approximately the next eight weeks.
Alberta Health Services (AHS) said in a release Thursday that there aren't enough doctors to cover the shifts but the closures are temporary and a last resort.
New patients won't be admitted to urgent care after 8 p.m. on those nights.
Patients admitted earlier will be treated and discharged. Nursing staff will remain in the centre overnight to assess and triage any walk-ins who show up during the closures.
AHS said it is working to make sure residents have access to the care they need — and that all other services at the site continue to operate as usual.
Patients needing emergency care during these closures are asked to call 911.
EMS will be rerouted to nearby facilities, including the Peter Lougheed Centre, Foothills Medical Centre and Alberta Children's Hospital — all in north Caglary — and the Didsbury District Health Centre.
Those with less urgent needs may be referred to local medical clinics for walk-in appointments Monday morning.
Airdrie's urgent care centre will resume 24-hour operations at 7 a.m. on Mondays.
2 women who died trying to save turtle on road in Chatham-Kent, Ont., remembered for love of animals
It was a shock to Dorothy Suliga when she learned that her mother, Teresa Suliga, and her aunt, Elizabeth Seremak, had been struck and killed by a vehicle on a rural road in Chatham-Kent.