Graeme Kohler
1, Timothy Holland
2, Ashley Sharpe
2, Mandi Irwin
2, Tara Sampalli
1*, Kolten MacDonell
2, Natalie Kidd
2, Lynn Edwards
1, Rick Gibson
1, Amy Legate
2, Ruth Ampi Kanakam
21 Primary Health Care, Nova Scotia Health Authority, Halifax, NS, Canada.
2 Newcomer Health Clinic, Primary Health Care, Nova Scotia Health Authority, Halifax, NS, Canada.
Abstract
Refugees tend to have greater vulnerability compared to the general population reporting greater need for physical,
emotional, or dental problems compared to the general population. Despite the importance of creating strong
primary care supports for these patients, it has been demonstrated that there is a significant gap in accessing
primary care providers who are willing to accept the refugee population. These have resulted in bottlenecks in the
transition or bridge clinics and have left patients orphaned without a primary care provider. This in turn results
in higher use of emergency service and other unnecessary costs to the healthcare system. Currently there are few
studies that have explored these challenges from primary care provider perspectives and very few to none from
patient perspectives. A novel collaborative implementation initiative in primary healthcare (PHC) is seeking to
improve primary medical care for the refugee population by creating a globally recommended transition or beacon
clinic to support care needs of new arrivals and transitions to primary care providers. We discuss the innovative
elements of the clinic model in this paper.