After successfully operating a new Wellness Bus since February, the Saskatchewan Health Association (SHA) has officially added one to Prince Albert.
The SHA gave guests and dignitaries a look at the new bus during their Prince Albert launch Friday morning. Community Wellness Bus Project Manager Thomas Laughton said the bus will make healthcare delivery more efficient for the City’s most vulnerable residents.
“We are going to bring this bus and primary healthcare to where they are,” Laughton said. “The whole healthcare system up until now has been asking people to come to us and now we recognize that for a significant portion of our population, that’s not really practical.”
Laughton said the buses will be staffed and run by the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) and will offer a variety of primary care services. The list includes basic health assessments, chronic disease monitoring, vaccinations, point of care testing for sexually transmitted and blood borne infections (STBBI), mental health and addictions assessments, and routine health care, like stitches.
Staff on the bus will also provide referrals for housing, social services, or addictions and mental health treatment.
Laughton said many vulnerable people have “trust issues with the SHA.” He’s hopeful the new wellness bus can change that. He’s also hopeful the bus can reduce healthcare costs and ER wait times.
“If we’re able to go to them (and) create a warm and inviting kind of presence, we’re hoping to be able to reduce not only the number of people accessing the, ER, but actually be able to kind of decrease the acuity of people who go to the ER,” Laughton said.
“They can do a dressing change here on the bus instead of them waiting and waiting and waiting because they don’t want to go all the way to the ER, the chances of that not getting infected are going to be dramatically lower.”
Laughton said a fully stocked and staff bus can anywhere between 15 to 20 people per day. He said the Regina bus typically hits that total, but the average day will vary depending on what type of healthcare clients need.
“Sometimes somebody can come in and it might be a little bit more complex, so they’re going to need a little bit more time,” he explained. “That’s one of the other benefits of this model of healthcare. Quite often at a family medicine clinic or something like that you’ve got those very brief fillable moments of those brief visits. Here, we’re going to respond what the needs of that person is. If somebody comes on and their needs are more complex and it’s going to take half-an-hour, we’re going to take half-an-hour with them.”
Laughton said staff and patient safety is something they take very safely. The bus has 360 degree cameras all the way around, as well as duress monitors. Laughton said the cameras feed directly to protective services.
The bus also comes with locks allowing each section to be isolated independently.
While the bus has several security features, Laughton said he doesn’t expect staff will need them very often.
“One things that I’ve noticed working with the vulnerable population for the last 20 years is if you develop that really good relationship with the community, the community itself will help keep you safe,” he said. “They recognize that you don’t want to interfere with what’s happening here. My number one priority on top of basically everything else is re-establishing trust with the community.”
Laughton said there has been a long history of stigma negative experiences in large, busy health care settings which kind of deter a lot of the vulnerable people from accessing care. He said his number one goal for the bus is creating as service that treats people with dignity and respect.
Laughton said they will work with a group of different departments to identify where there are large populations of vulnerable people. He said the downtown area has long been identified as an area where there is limited primary healthcare services, but a large population of vulnerable people.
He said they’ll focus on the downtown area for the first three to five months of operation just to establish themselves in the community. Afterwards, he said they’ll look at expanding to other locations, like the Stepping Stones Shelter.
The bus has a three person staff that includes a nurse practitioner, a licensed practical nurse, and assessor coordinators. The SHA is still looking to recruit for the nurse practitioner position. At a press conference on Friday, SHA Integrated Northern Health and Chief Nursing Officer Andrew McLetchie said once they recruit for that final position, and work out a few small details, they will be ready to hit the road. He’s hopeful that will be sometime within the next month.
“We’re confident we’ll be able to find people to staff the bus. We are currently recruiting the last positions, particularly for the nurse practitioners, but because it’s a smaller service we are confident that we should be able to find those staff,” he said.
Health Minister Jeremy Cockrill was unable in attend Friday’s ceremony. In a press release, he said launching the Community Wellness Bus project is another step in improving access to quality health care in Saskatchewan.
“Wellness buses will ensure that residents across the province have another avenue to get the care they need in their communities,” Cockrill said.
Prince Albert Northcote MLA Alana Ross was on hand to represent Cockrill at Friday’s launch. She said the Community Wellness Bus will provide a new option for people to access primary care.
“Healthcare teams on the bus will create a partnership with the community and establish trust by offering non-judgmental, flexible, and trauma-informed care, while also connecting people to further supports as they need it,” she said during the press conference.
“The Community Wellness Project Bus contributes to the sustainability and the strength of our provincial healthcare system as we continue to improve service, reduce wait times, and provide our residents with care closer to home.”
The Prince Albert bus has been stopping at various locations this week to offer the public a chance to see what services will be offered and ask questions. The bus will be fully operational soon and residents can call 306-940-9943 for location and hours of operation.
–with files from Jason Kerr/Daily Herald
