Arnold Poohkay visits the Sylvan Lake Community Health Centre regularly for diabetic blood work. He is happy with the care he receives at the lab but, like others in the central Alberta community, he thinks the town needs to offer more health services.
Sylvan Lake town council is pushing for the provincial government to approve an Urgent Care Centre (UCC) to replace the current clinic, which is classed as an advanced ambulatory care centre, to meet surging demand and relieve pressure on the regional health-care system.
“I feel much better to have the service here in town,” Poohkay said.
An ambulatory clinic operates with limited daytime and evening hours and has restrictions on the types of services it can offer. An urgent care centre can provide extended or around-the-clock care and allows direct patient drop-offs by ambulances.
Mayor Megan Hanson said the facility, which opened in 2018, is a great step up from a basic walk-in clinic, offering treatment for injuries that are urgent but not life-threatening.
However, she said, there is a growing need for more.
According to a recent report done by the Sylvan Lake and Area Urgent Care Committee, patient visits to the ambulatory clinic jumped to more than 22,000 in 2025, recording nearly 430 visits a week on average. This is up from roughly 18,000 in 2023.
“That is quite substantial,” Hanson said, noting the facility is used both by Sylvan Lake residents and people from the broader region.
“The sooner we can upgrade the service, the sooner we know we have what we need.”
That demand is compounded by the town’s demographics, she said. Sylvan Lake, located about 25 kilometres west of Red Deer, has a population of about 17,000 but sees roughly 700,000 visitors annually.
“All of those things do place a higher demand on all of our services, including health care, than most other communities of the same size,” Hanson said.
Council has been lobbying the province for the transition for about two years, she added.
Keeping patients closer to home
The Sylvan Lake health clinic is one of two advanced ambulatory care centres currently operating in Alberta, according to the provincial government. The other one is in La Crete, about 670 kilometres north of Edmonton, according to Alberta Health Services.
Hanson said the ambulatory clinic closes overnight, and ambulances require prior approval to bring patients. This means ambulances spend significant time transporting patients to Red Deer and are therefore unavailable for local emergencies.
Transitioning to a UCC would mean extended hours, expanded services and direct ambulance drop-offs for less serious emergencies. Hanson said that life-threatening cases will always require the Red Deer hospital, but a local UCC could handle a significant number of calls and keep patients closer to home.
Hanson said the town had originally asked for an urgent care facility when it was advocating for health-care infrastructure in 2016.
Because of that, many residents mistakenly believe they already have one, she said.
Resident Francis Rovero said a full-scale centre in town would be an improvement over having to drive to other communities for care.
“We want to be clear about what we currently have and what we’re asking for,” Hanson said.
Province says planning is underway
A spokesperson for Adriana LaGrange, Alberta’s minister of hospital and surgical health services, told CBC News that the government is looking to improve access for Sylvan Lake and the surrounding area.
“Planning work is currently underway to upgrade the Sylvan Lake Advanced Ambulatory Care Centre to an Urgent Care Centre,” said LaGrange’s press secretary Maddison McKee.
This is part of the 2026 budget’s $39-million commitment, including $25 million in new funding, to continue developing eight new urgent care centres across the province, including west Edmonton, east Calgary, Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, Cold Lake and Fort McMurray.
This is alongside continued funding for the over $1.8-billion Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre redevelopment project.
While Sylvan Lake was not among the eight locations announced for new facilities, McKee said in her statement that decisions on transitioning an existing site rely on patient volumes, demand trends and local population growth.
Currently, she added more than 35 per cent of emergency department visits are for non-life-threatening conditions that could be treated at urgent care centres.
‘Shoehorned’ into a retail space
If the province approves the future transition of the Sylvan Lake clinic, some say a new building will be essential.
Susan Samson, chair of the Sylvan Lake and Area Urgent Care Committee and a former town mayor, said the current facility was retrofitted from a retail space and is already bursting at the seams.
“It’s very, very tight. Equipment needs are limited. It is like shoehorned into that building,” Samson said.
She added the current site shares a single entrance and a parking lot with other health services, which are routinely at capacity.
As well, an urgent care centre would require dedicated ambulance bays, expanded treatment areas, and more staff space, she said.
Despite the infrastructural hurdles, Samson says a 24-hour facility would be “a game-changer” for residents who currently have no local options late at night.
Hanson highlighted that with Sylvan Lake’s unique demographic of a booming tourism population and overall resident growth, the need is already clear.
“This is a place where we could take some of that regional load off,” Hanson said. “We would love to see that right in our community.”
