Planned renovations at the Airdrie Urgent Care Centre have been put on hold while the provincial government considers a new pitch by an Airdrie doctor in partnership with a developer that could see a new facility built and leased to the province.The Airdrie Community Health Centre opened in 1998. It began offering urgent care in 2007 and expanded to 24/7 services in 2017.
Airdrie family physician Dr. Julian Kyne, the director of One Health Associate Medical, is behind the late-hour pitch to Alberta Health. Kyne says the centre needs a lot of upgrades and redesigning to fully meet the needs of Airdrie — beyond the planned renos.He also believes that many patients who come through urgent care could be seen by a family physician instead. But often, he says, they don't have one.
"One of the things that we have to understand is just saying we're going to fix it doesn't seem to work," he said. She says there are 14 beds and chairs in the urgent care centre and the renovations were supposed to bring that total to just over 20 spaces.