Surrey opens first of 10 city-supported primary care clinics

The City of Surrey opened the first of 10 city-supported primary care clinics in Whalley on Aug. 28, seeking to improve residents’ access to family doctors. The clinic is at #210 – 10362 King George Boulevard.

Mayor Brenda Locke said Surrey has about 59 family doctors per 100,000 residents, less than half Vancouver’s rate, as the city’s rapid growth increases demand for primary care. Surrey first announced its Community Medical Clinics initiative in May 2025. Locke said health care is not normally a local-government responsibility, but the need was too urgent to wait for solutions.

The city will cover lease and facility costs of about $100,000 a year per clinic, allowing operators to direct money toward needs such as physician recruitment. A second clinic is expected in a new commercial building in Newton within a month. Total Life Care Granville Medical, or TLC, will manage both clinics. Locke said the city’s role is limited to supplying physical space, while doctors, TLC and the province are responsible for daily operations.

Each clinic is to have 10 doctors, each with at least 1,250 patients, and will serve as a teaching site for student doctors at the SFU Stephens Family School of Medicine. Dr. Karan Grewal, TLC Medical Clinic’s co-founder and medical director, said timely primary care can improve health for families and the community and that his team is ready to welcome patients.

Coun. Linda Annis, also a mayoral candidate, criticized the use of city property-tax revenue for a provincial responsibility and said the clinics would compete unfairly with existing clinics that pay their own taxes and costs. Locke disagreed, saying the project is not competition and was developed with the Surrey North Delta Division of Family Medicine to address the city’s longstanding shortage of family doctors.