It has been two months since Mayfair Diagnostics opened the doors at its Cochrane location.

The long-awaited much-anticipated diagnostic, screening and imaging clinic is centrally located in Grande Plaza in downtown Cochrane.

June Diment is the Spokesperson for Mayfair and she says that being able to provide Cochranites with more health care services close to home has been a long time coming.

"Our original plan was to be opened earlier than we actually could do," says Diment. "But covid, the same way it's affected so many things, also affected our ability to open the clinic, but now that it's open and has been going for a few months, we're absolutely thrilled."

Cochranites no longer need to travel to the city if they require an ultrasound, mammography or bone mineral density services.

Diment says that with COVID protocol in place, the clinic isn't able to run at full capacity at the moment.

"We're trying to take particular care to make sure that when a patient comes into the clinic the examination room has been thoroughly cleaned and disinfected before their examination and after their examination," says Diment. "So that means we can't at the moment see as many patients as we would normally see if this wasn't a pandemic."

The Cochrane clinic's operations are aligned with Alberta Health Services COVID-19 protocols. All patients are required to wear a face mask upon entering the clinic, answer screening questions at check-in and appointments must be made ahead of time. Although the clinic is operating at a lower daily capacity, Diment says that patients have been able to get appointments quickly.

Diment strongly encourages local patients to make their personal health a priority. She says that far too often she hears of patients not following through with requisitions from their physicians and having necessary testing done.

"It's amazing the number of people who are scared to go and have the examination done. Sometimes it's because they're scared that it's going to be painful," says Diment. "It isn't at all, we nowadays have the most advanced technology to support female patients who have to have mammograms conducted. I would hate to think that people don't fulfill their requisition and book an appointment because they're scared to come in."

Cochrane's Mayfair location is open Monday to Friday from 8 am to 4 pm and free parking is available near the front entrance of the clinic.