When Canada Life agreed to partner with Hospitals of Regina Foundation, to support Regina’s new Urgent Care Centre, we knew we were working with a partner that truly shares our goal of making lives better by investing in our community’s health care. Canada Life has been supporting health and wellness initiatives through their philanthropy for years, especially where they operate and have staff teams. Here in Regina, Canada Life maintains a head office with hundreds of employees who live, work and raise families in our community.

Canada Life recognized the importance of this project to the growing health care needs of our southern Saskatchewan community. Their latest donation of $100,000 will help the Foundation invest in the new technology, equipment, furniture and fixtures necessary for our new Urgent Care Centre. Saskatchewan’s population is growing and Regina’s Urgent Care Centre is the first new investment in health care capacity in the city, in over twenty years.

In addition to providing additional health care capacity and an intermediate step between primary health care (family physicians or walk-in-clinics) and the Emergency Department for patients, the Regina Urgent Care Centre will help relieve some of the pressure on our Emergency Departments at the Regina General and Pasqua Hospitals. The Saskatchewan Health Authority estimates that our new Urgent Care Centre will care for 20,000 patients in its first year of operation, including approximately 2,000 people seeking urgent mental health and addictions care.

“Canada Life is proud to support Hospitals of Regina Foundation’s campaign to create an Urgent Care Centre and reduce demand on their Emergency Departments,” says Katerina Bletnitsky, senior program manager, community relations. “We invest in regional hospitals in an effort to achieve better health outcomes and the highest-quality patient care possible for Saskatchewanians who need it.”

“We are very grateful for Canada Life’s partnership on this important project”, says Lisa Green, senior vice president for Hospitals of Regina Foundation. “As part of our community, they understood the need for additional health care capacity in Regina, to provide another option for immediate, non life-threatening medical care while

reducing wait times in our Emergency Departments. The Urgent Care Centre will allow our medical teams to provide the best care possible, in the right setting, for our family, friends and neighbours.”