Turner Family Medicine
223 10 Street T9W 1N7 Wainwright, AB, Canada

Access Updates Please be aware that there is going to be a reduction in the number of Local Physician’s working the ER shifts at Wainwright Hospital This will mean that until further notice- we will be unable to offer the same number of Clinic Appointments - as we will be working more ER shifts.... Please help by booking follow up appointments as you leave the clinic and checking the status of your refills for medications Often we work 24 hours in the ER with a period of rest after- which means we can be out of the clinic for up to 48 hours. Remember when calling for something - it often won’t be possible to give you immediate responses until we are back in clinic. It is unfortunate that sometimes patients feel they are waiting a long time for response to a query and yet - when we are simply not onsite to provide this Sometimes calling several times in one day - can lead to frustration for all concerned Boundaries: Whilst we appreciate - it is tempting to reach out via social media to gain a quick response - this is not a secure or safe means for us to provide care. Appointment Types: The clinic still offers in person and phone appointments. The clinic is still following AHS Guidance and we are continuing to wear masks in the Clinic Space until advised otherwise. Please be respectful with the time of your appointments - we can only deal with a certain number of concerns in one appointment. Appointments can be booked by phone or online If you are uncertain what to book - please speak to a staff member.

We will be having an evening ambulatory care clinic tomorrow, Thursday April 7th. Give us a call at 780-842-6676 if you are needing an appointment! Phone lines open at 9:00 am.

We thought we would do a bit of a public service announcement. We know that as we start learning to live with COVID that health care will need to adapt to the "new normal" 1)We are as a clinic still requesting that people wear a mask in the clinic. This is based on current advice from AHS. This is recognizing that we do have more people who fall into the higher risk groups, ie those who are advancing in years and those patients with multiple health problems. We are grateful f...or our patients continuing to respect our masking policy. 2)We are aware that there is a doctor in town that is leaving practice. We are also aware that some other doctors in town are changing the way that they practice and reducing commitment to cover ER. This unfortunately has a knock on effect to the rest of the doctors in town, us included. As doctors we are required to provide emergency coverage, and less doctors means our commitment is higher, in this case up to 20% more per doctor. This will have an impact on our access in clinic in the future. We will do our best to try to keep our waiting times down, but as we are sure you can appreciate there is a limit to how much we will be able to do. The town is actively recruiting and we are involved in this process. Hopefully this will be a short term issue only. We are grateful for your understanding during this difficult time. We are also having to keep our lists closed to new patients until such time as there are more doctors in town. 3)We are aware that people get frustrated especially given the pandemic and looking forward access to doctors could be increasingly tricky. We respectfully remind patients of our zero tolerance policy to verbal and physical abuse. It is unfortunate that again we feel we have to mention this. Any incident of verbal or physical aggression will result in the immediate cessation of the doctor/patient relationship and we as a clinic will no longer be able to provide care to you. We really want to help, and recognize that there may be urgencies and problems that are causing stress. We cannot help angry and aggressive people.

Turner Family Medicine is currently experiencing technical difficulties with regards to our phone services. It is our understanding that this is a TELUS issue. We are currently trying to fix this issue. Apologies for any inconvenience caused.

Covid Update At this time the clinic remains open for patients. This is something we are reviewing daily as the number of Positive Cases in the Town of Wainwright are rising.... As a rural community - we do cover both the clinic, ER and Hospital In the event we or a physician colleague is needing to quarantine then we may need to rearrange appointments at short notice to cover ER. Please be vigilant with regard to your own health - please be aware of the health screening questions and do not travel to the clinic if you are answering yes to questions For all patients with booked appointments - these can be changed to phone calls - if you feel that you cannot attend or feel safer to do so . Accepting that not everything is easy to assess in this way !

We can confirm that the online booking system is now working.

We are happy to announce that we have now developed our on line booking and reminder service. Soon you will be able to use the link below to book online appointments https://onlineappointmentbooking.medikazam.com/medical/#1245... You will get reminders at 3 and 2 days prior to your upcoming appointments. These will be email/SMS and Voice

Covid 19 numbers are climbing in Alberta The Clinic is closed for appointments this week - but will reopen on Monday - until a decision regards a possible circuit breaker closure is announced. We urge patients with potential symptoms - however minimal or seasonal cold like to respect public safety and stay home.... We can convert in person visits to phone calls if need be. The latest guidance on clinic openings advised patients to attend in person as close to appointment times as possible. Please don’t arrive extra early or bring additional family members. Unless an extra person is needed to help communicate or because you are attending with a child we would respectfully ask you to attend alone. Masks are mandatory - to protect all patients and staff. We are a small business and if we can limit staff sickness we can maintain the service we provide for everyone

The clinic will be open 9am- 12pm this week, the clinic will be closed completely on the 11th November. There will be no doctors available during this time. You will still be able to make appointments and do administrative tasks with staff being on site during the above hours. Emergency issues will be dealt with via the ER. Sorry for any inconvenience.