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A new medical facility intended to keep elderly people with complicated health care needs out of hospital is set to open in the former Saskatchewan Liquor and Gaming Authority store at Market Mall next month.

Construction on the $3-million Community Health Centre is expected to wrap up “in the next few weeks” — the target was Oct. 19 — and the clinic should open by the end of November, according to the Saskatchewan Health Authority.

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The clinic, which will be staffed with almost 100 physicians, nurses, physical therapists and other medical staff and cost $2 million to run each year, is one of the new health authority’s strategies to reduce pressure on emergency rooms.

The Canadian Institute for Health Information reported last year that 90 per cent of patients in Saskatchewan hospitals are admitted or discharged within 10.1 hours, well above the national average of 7.8 hours.

That figure rises dramatically for patients aged 65 or older, 90 per cent of whom wait 35 hours to be admitted or discharged, compared to the national average of 33 hours, the institute reported in December.