The new health hub in the old Costco building in the east end opened to the public this week with one of the main components, the urgent care clinic, still to come.

That facility, expected to be open in a couple of months, will be one step below a full-fledged emergency room, designed to make it easier for people to access health care in time of immediate need.

NL Health Services spokesman Dr. Greg Browne, a vascular surgeon by profession, says not every situation will be black or white on whether a patient goes to the urgent care clinic or the emergency room.

He says they’ve already had a situation where someone who showed up to avail of services at the hub had to be transported to hospital. He says there are protocols in place for those situations.