Cut Knife and area residents now have access to enhanced high quality, timely primary health care services in their community after a recent relocation and expansion of the former medical clinic within the Cut Knife Health Complex.
The newly developed Primary Health Centre was officially opened on February 28, 2018. It is located in the west wing of the Cut Knife Health Complex adjacent to the existing Laboratory Services department. Relocating the centre on the same side of the facility as the lab will improve convenience for patients needing both the services of lab and primary health care. Previously if they required lab work as a result of their appointment, clients would have to visit the Cut Knife Health Complex for this service. Now they have access to it all in one location.
Cut Knife PHC - Cutting cake to celebrate the new space.
Minor renovations took place in an area of the building that was not currently being used. The new space includes three patient examination rooms and a private physician and nurse practitioner space for counselling. It also has space for visiting mental health counsellors, a chronic disease management professional, a nutrition specialist, public health nurses and home care nurses. “The new space is over three times larger than the former Cut Knife Clinic and patient access to services is nearly doubled, with PHC hours expanded to five days a week Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.,” said Charlotte Hamilton, director of Primary Health Services North Battleford with the Saskatchewan Health Authority. One Friday per month the centre will be closed.
The expansion of hours is due largely to the availability of a nurse practitioner (NP) on a full time basis. NP Casey Gaw is based in Cut Knife and provides patient care four days a week. Physician services are also available two days a week. The new location offers greater access to Telehealth services including patient consultations with specialists and educational sessions which will help to reduce travel times to larger centres where the specialists are located for Cut Knife and area patients.
Gwenn Kaye, Vice-Chairperson of Highway 40 Health Holdings and Mayor of Cut Knife said the community of Cut Knife is very excited with relocation of the medical clinic into the new Primary Health Centre. “A big thank you goes to everyone who worked so hard to make this possible. We are very happy to have this part of the Cut Knife Health Complex being used again and really believe our communities will be served better with the enhanced hours and larger space.”