New health centre set to open at former downtown YMCA location in Regina

A new healthcare centre is expected to take over the building that once housed Regina’s downtown YMCA.

The Nest Health Centre is set to be a “one-stop medical facility” that will include medical offices, medical imaging and labs, physiotherapy, a health-focused restaurant, climbing walls and childcare facilities.

Its childcare service will provide reserved spaces for staff and drop-in care for visitors, which aims to address “a key challenge for working parents and removes a barrier for parents who wish to re-enter the healthcare workforce,” according to a news release.

The Nest plans to reopen the two pools, the gymnasium and fitness facilities that once served the YMCA members. These services will offer patient care through hydrotherapy and rehabilitation, and will also be available to the public.

“It’s encompassing in the name. It’s The Nest and we’re really hoping to bridge that gap between quality healthcare and wellness for the community,” said Neha Jain, The Nest’s director of communications.

“We are hoping that it becomes again a central location within downtown Regina that people can go to for a workout, or a swim or get a few of those doctor’s appointments checked off their list.”

The Nest is owned by Prairie United Holdings, a group of Saskatchewan business people and healthcare professionals. They purchased the building from the YMCA and take possession Nov. 1. However, they do not plan to open until next year.

The Regina YMCA closed its downtown aquatic and fitness facilities in November 2020.

“We’re really pleased to see this come back to the community. We’re pleased to see the renewal and in the spirit of what they’re doing here we don’t think we could hand it off to a better organization,” said Regina YMCA CEO Steve Compton.

“It’s great that this building will be renewed and restored and be an integral part of downtown and that there’s going to be even more services than we were offering.”

The YMCA will continue to operate its childcare centre out of the downtown facility until it relocates its services to a new building at 3801 Albert St. in January 2023.

The new YMCA centre will create an additional 80 licensed childcare spaces, bringing the total spaces to 170. The new building will also host YMCA community programs and administration offices.

Recruitment is underway for healthcare workers, according to Jain, but that could be a challenge due to industry burnout and a healthcare worker shortage.

However, Jain hopes employee incentives will help attract workers to the job.

“Our biggest priority for us is ensuring that our patients and our healthcare providers have that support they need,” Jain said.

“It is really about that support staff so they can focus on their patients that full end-to-end patient care and less on the paperwork.”

The Nest will be located at 2400 13th Ave. and is expected to open in mid-2023.