A new minor-treatment clinic on the first floor of the Health Sciences Centre is expected to take some of the burden off the emergency room and better serve patients coming to Manitoba’s largest hospital from northern or rural areas.

The province is spending approximately $2.4 million in annual operational funding to open the clinic, which will be located adjacent to the 700 William Ave. entrance of the hospital. Patients who need treatment for minor injuries or illness, including stitches or antibiotics, will be referred to the clinic after first being triaged and assessed in the emergency department.

“We expect the clinic to have a positive impact on our emergency department wait times and to significantly reduce the number of patients who choose to leave the hospital prior to receiving care,” said Dr. Manon Pelletier, HSC’s chief medical officer.

The clinic is expected to be open 12 hours a day, morning to night, staffed with one doctor and one nurse. Eventually, the plan is to add social workers and nurse-practitioner staff, Pelletier said. The idea was developed by a small group of HSC leaders, including chief operating officer Dr. Shawn Young.

Pelletier and Young made the announcement along with Health Minister Audrey Gordon at HSC Friday afternoon. They’re anticipating the clinic will serve a large Indigenous population, including patients who live nearby but don’t have family doctors.

However, the new clinic won’t clear the backlog of patients waiting in the ER because they need a hospital bed.

“The treatment clinic will help significantly the safety in our waiting room and the number of patients waiting long periods of time,” Pelletier said.

“It is not going to help the access-block problem that we have at the site. Many, many, many other initiatives are underway to assist in access block and helping flow patients out of the emergency department, and we continue to work aggressively (on) recruitment and retention to help staff all of our units to their full capacity.”

Patients with less-urgent needs wait the longest in the ER, and health officials have previously raised concerns about high rates of patients leaving without being seen by a doctor.

In November, the rate of patients leaving HSC’s adult ER without being seen was 26.6 per cent. In December, it was 21.8 per cent, according to Shared Health figures.

The clinic aims to treat some of the patients who might have otherwise left, Pelletier said. They are working on supplying addictions support and links to other community services as well as providing “culturally safe” care, she said.

Gordon said the clinic may be able to expand to 24-hour operation in the future.

“Nothing is off the table,” she said.

The clinic is expected to open in the summer.

katie.may@winnipegfreepress.com