Did you know?
Nova Scotia Health opened an urgent treatment centre at Musquodoboit Valley Memorial Hospital on Tuesday, April 4, 2023.
The urgent treatment centre provides care for people with unexpected, non-life-threatening health concerns that require same or next day treatment. Some examples include simple fractures, sprains, earaches, minor cuts, and mild abdominal pain. The centre will be available to people with or without a family doctor or nurse practitioner.
This model will provide more reliable, consistent access to care for the community and provide a more sustainable and balanced workload for our staff and physicians. The model will be assessed to ensure it is continuing to work as intended.
Patients can book appointments starting at 8:15 a.m. each day the urgent treatment centre is open by calling 902-384-2220. When people call, they will be assessed by a nurse to determine if they will be scheduled for an appointment, either later that day or the next available day.
This service replaces the collaborative emergency centre that has been operating Sundays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays.
An urgent treatment centre differs from an emergency department in that it will provide care for non-life-threatening injuries and illnesses; it will not receive ambulances and it will only see patients by appointment. Patients who require emergency care should continue to call 911.
Partnering in Community
The Musquodoboit Valley Health Foundation, Musquodoboit Valley Memorial Hospital and Eastern Shore Community Health Board are working together to look at new ways to recruit locals into the healthcare field, to support current staff to advance in their careers, and to celebrate the healthcare workers in our community.
We are looking for community members and current or retired healthcare staff to join our working group to help us come up with new, fun ideas to grow our healthcare workforce from within our community and to strengthen the connection between our healthcare facilities, its employees, and the community. If you are interested in learning more about the working group, please contact Denise VanWychen at [email protected].
Our People
Meet Jennifer Cornick, a registered nurse who works at the Musquodoboit Valley Memorial Hospital (MVMH) in the Inpatient unit and Urgent Treatment Centre (UTC). She completed her Bachelor of Nursing at Memorial University in Newfoundland (NL) six years ago. Being from NL, she had a calling for the peaceful country life. After working for more than five years at QEII’s Halifax Infirmary, she decided to make a change to rural nursing at the place she loved as a student six years ago. At the Urgent Treatment Centre at MVMH, she is able to provide timely access to care for those with unexpected, non-life threating health concerns.
Jennifer is proud to be a part of the new model of care and look forward to serving the community.
Your Health, Your Community is a contributed column from Nova Scotia Health. If you have comments or questions, we want to hear from you at [email protected].
