A critical cog in Salt Spring’s already stressed healthcare service wheel is under threat.
The island’s Options for Sexual Health clinic (a.k.a. “Opt”) is among 25 in B.C. that its parent body says could close this spring if a commitment for more funding is not provided by the B.C. government.
A non-profit organization that originated in the Planned Parenthood association, it has provided sexual health and reproductive planning information and services for decades. Provincial government support began in 1969.
The provincial Opt group says it needs $1.5 million more per year from the provincial government to maintain full services. No increase has been provided since 2011, yet nurses’ wages have risen substantially in that time, and Opt is finding it difficult to staff the clinics as a result.
Loss of the clinic would be a huge blow to local healthcare services. Salt Spring’s Opt clinic estimates that 75 per cent of its patients use it as their primary source of sexual and reproductive healthcare, stating that nearly 4,000 residents do not have a family doctor. Screening tests for sexually transmitted infections and cervical cancer are provided, in addition to birth control methods, one day per week in its Core Inn clinic. All services are free to people with Medical Services Plan coverage, although donations are welcomed. Province-wide, some 14,000 people accessed Opt services last year, and clinics are even more important in more remote B.C. communities.
In a time when so many people do not have family doctors, non-profit organizations like Opt fill an absolutely critical role. Closing an efficient and convenient location and forcing people to seek equivalent services at hospital emergency departments makes no sense financially or logistically. The $1.5 million needed will be quickly eaten up by extra emergency room visits and further treatment required for preventable diseases and conditions.
People are encouraged to sign the local online petition at change.org/p/save-salt-spring-island-options-for-sexual-health and to write letters to their MLAs and Premier David Eby requesting the increase in funding that would allow clinics to remain open. We hope the government heeds the call for common sense in this case.