Saskatchewan Health Authority to open clinic for seniors with complex health needs to keep them out of hospital

The clinic is one of the Saskatchewan Health Authority’s new strategies to reduce pressure on emergency rooms. The Community Health Centre will be used to keep elderly people with complicated healthcare needs out of hospital. It will open in a former Saskatchewan Liquor and Gaming Authority store in a Saskatoon mall. It’ll be staffed with 100 physicians, nurses, physical therapists and other medical staff and will cost SHA $2 million annually to run. SHA emphasized that the new facility isn’t a walk-in or family physician clinic and only aims to care for adults aged 50 or older with "complex chronic care needs." CIHI reported 90% of patients in Saskatchewan hospitals are admitted or discharged within 10.1 hours. That’s above the 7.8-hours national average. That figure rises for patients aged 65 or older, 90% of whom wait 35 hours to be admitted or discharged, compared to the national average of 33 hours.