A former daycare has been completely transformed into Williams Lake’s only walk-in clinic by a emergency room physician and his wife.
Borland Medi-Clinic opened its’ doors to patients Monday with overwhelmingly positive feedback.
“I work full time in the ER and I was just not happy with people waiting 3-4 hours to see a doctor for things that could be seen in an office,” says Dr. Johann Schreve.
“So my wife, Suzanne and I got together and we decided that we would start this clinic for the community.”
From 9 am until 1 pm about 20 patients had already taken advantage of the services provided at the Clinic.
“We hope to be busier in the future, but I think people need to get used to the clinic idea that it’s here and if you can’t get into your doctor then this would be an option,” says Dr. Schreve.
“We’re going to work with all of the family physicians in town to provide continuative care.”
The building located at 452 Borland Street was purchased by the Schreves in December.
“We wanted to buy a building because we wanted our own building so we looked at buying a house initially up by the hospital, but because of the regulations and where it was situated we had to go through a lot of hoops to get it ready for a walk in clinic,” Dr. Schreve explains.
“So we we saw this building and we came and had a look at it. Suzanne and I, the vision came to us that this would work because it has a huge waiting room, it’s got very unique features. We got Derek in from Cariboo WeatherDek and he saw what we wanted to do and he did a great job of making it as it is right now. We’re very happy with the end result.”
The Clinic is currently open Monday-Friday from 9am-1pm and 4pm- 7pm.
“We also realize there is a need over weekends and the emergency room is the only open facility, so we will be open from 10 am until 12 on most Saturdays but again check the website,” says Dr. Schreve noting that the hours will depend on the availability of physicians.
“We’re pretty much here to stay. We’ve invested in this building, we own it. It’s not Interior Health, it’s a privately owned building and we don’t plan on going anywhere.”
“We feel the community needs it and we will continue to try to staff it as much as we can.”
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