Options for Sexual Health fears closures across the province
Over 50 per cent of the patients that use Options in Nanaimo have no other healthcare provider. Photo: Lauryn Mackenzie / CHLY 101.7fm
For almost 50 years the Options for Sexual Health clinic in Nanaimo has offered sexual and reproductive health services for all ages and genders, but now the clinic is fearing it may have to close in the next couple of months.
With over 50 Options for Sexual Health clinics across the province, it supports 14,000 people annually by offering free birth control, sexually transmitted infections (STI) testing and care, Pap screenings, pregnancy testing, and pregnancy options counselling.
Nicole Pasquino is a registered nurse and clinical policy director for Options. She said that the clinics play an important role in remote communities where people can get needed services closer to home. As well, many of the clinics open later in the evening, allowing those who can’t get care during the day to do so.
But now, with a lack of necessary funding from the Provincial Health Services Authority (PHSA), Options may have to make the tough decision of closing 85 per cent of its clinics.
“So we're funded provincially through PHSA, and with our continued stagnant funding and no contract increase over the last 12 years, we've been forced to look at our operating model and make the difficult decision of potentially closing up to 85 per cent of our clinic services across the province,” Pasquino said.
She said that because of this they have been unable to meet the current demands of the healthcare system, specifically around wages for staff where often up to 40 per cent of staff wages are under the current standard market of wages for nursing.
“We can no longer really ethically continue to operate that way. So we've looked at the way that we operate our service. There's demands that are coming around electronic charting and maintaining certain standards around nurse prescribing,” she said. “That's a new function for nurses that we need the dollars to be able to keep up with, and we just can't do it anymore.”
Right now Options is looking at all 52 clinics in the province to figure out which one will close if funding can not be increased. Pasquino said they are looking at individual clinics and the context within each of the clinics’ communities while staying transparent with their staff.
“It's not just the context of their communities, but it's also the ability of other services. A lot of our rural, remote clinics are places where no one else can access service,” she said. “There's no other available service, like, if someone needs emergency contraception, they have to go to the emergency room, which puts a strain on the health care system, as you can imagine, an already strained health care system.”
The Board of Directors for Options has put out a letter to the ministry looking for $800,000 in bridge funding that would keep about 50 per cent of its clinic open and fairly compensate its staff at current livable wages.
In order to continue to operate long-term at its current level, they are asking for a commitment to long-term funding of about $1.5 million a year.
“We've given them a deadline of January 31 and once we hear back from them, then we will be able to announce which clinics we will have to close down,” Pasquino said.
The clinic in Nanaimo serves around 1,500 to 2,000 patients every year depending on the year, with a large patient need for STI testing and care.
“The nurses in Nanaimo do a fantastic job of ensuring every patient feels welcome and getting the care that they need,” Pasquino said. “When there's no reproductive and sexual health services around, it forces people to choose services that maybe aren't as beneficial for them, especially vulnerable populations. There's a lot of stigma related around sexual and reproductive health, so if they can't go anywhere else, then overall, we'll look at an increase in STI rates and accessibility to contraception and cervical screening will also be impacted.”
Over 50 per cent of the patients that use Options in Nanaimo have no other healthcare provider.
“One of the things that's really important to note is that often in communities where youth are well supported, we fill the gap when people age out of a youth clinic,” she said. “So the people that come to [the Nanaimo clinic] tend to be between the 20 and 35-year-olds who just don't have family doctors or can't access their care anywhere else.”
In an open letter from Options to its patients and community members, it requests supporters to contact their local MLA and urge them to support the needed funding for the clinics. Options has also set up a webpage where people can share their stories of how the closure could impact their community.
“We hear many, many stories. I have patients–I see patients as well–and we have patients who come to us because they have nowhere else to go,” she said. “We see a lot of people who face gender-based violence, and we really don't want those patients to have to be the ones who face the impact of our clinics closing.
CHLY reached out to MLA for Nanaimo—Gabriola Island Sheila Malcolmson for comment and was referred to the Ministry of Health.
In a statement from the Ministry of Health given to CHLY, it states the Ministry of Health “is grateful for the important services that Options for Sexual Health provides to thousands of people across B.C. Everyone has the right to safe, compassionate and non-judgmental sexual and reproductive care.”
It also states that the Ministry and the Provincial Health Services Authority are “continuing to work with Options for Sexual Health as well as other partners to find a pathway forward to support the delivery of care.”
Pasquino said it is important to consider that reproductive and sexual health care is an important part of the healthcare system.
“If we do end up having to close up to 85 per cent of our clinical services it's going to be a huge gap in our healthcare system, and we already have a healthcare system that is overstretched and over needed, and it will just put more impact on that health care system that we just don't have any room to squeeze,” she said.
Other locations in Nanaimo where STI and HIV testing and care can be accessed are NARFS Health Matters Clinic, AVI Health and Community Services, and the Medical Arts urgent care clinic.
As well as a list of clinics offering reproductive healthcare such as Pap testing in Nanaimo can be found on the BC Cancer website.
Editor’s note: The story has been updated with statement from the Ministry of Health
Funding Note: This story was produced with funding support from the Local Journalism Initiative, administered by the Community Radio Fund of Canada.