Annette Floyd remembers a conversation she had with one of her clients, a 72-year-old refugee who fled to Vancouver with his family for a better life. “I asked him if he was sleeping well, with all of the noise downtown,” she recalls, using the help of a translator at the time. “He said to me, ‘I’ve been listening to gunfire and bombing my entire life. I’m sleeping like a baby.’”

Annette is one of the nurses working at VCH’s Bridge Clinic. It’s a small team of 11 people—including nurses, a nurse practitioner and physicians—but they have over 1,600 government-sponsored refugees and refugee claimants on their caseload at any given time. They “bridge” the primary health care gap from when a refugee arrives in Vancouver to the time when they connect with a family doctor.

Bridge Clinic is moving east

On Dec. 1 the clinic will be moving to Evergreen Community Health Centre at 3425 Crowley Drive in East Vancouver, from their current location at Raven Song.

“Moving is always challenging, but this will be a good move for us,” says Cathy Crozier, acting manager of Bridge Clinic. “We’ll be in closer proximity to where our clients live, next to a SkyTrain station, and we’ll make new connections with the team and services at Evergreen.”

“We’ll also be near the future home of Immigration Services Society’s new Welcome House, a facility that welcomes and hosts new refugees for their first weeks as they arrive in British Columbia and begin to find their way,” Cathy adds.

Bridge Clinic’s hours will remain Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., by appointment.  An afternoon walk-in clinic is also available to existing clients.

Improvements for the team

In addition to the benefits for clients, the team is looking forward to their new space because it will allow them to work more closely together for the first time.

They’re also having all paper charts scanned into their electronic medical record—clinical information will be at their fingertips from the moment they arrive.

“It’s a rewarding place to work”

“Often we see families with sick children that have very correctable conditions,” says Donna Haglund, the team clinical coordinator. “They’ve been in refugee camps for so long – sometimes up to 15 years – without basic health care.”

“It takes very little effort to make things a lot better for our clients,” says Annette. “It’s a rewarding place to work.”