Photo: Google Street View
Options for Sexual Health in Vernon is within the North Okanagan Health Unit building
Sexual health clinics across the province will stay open for at least another year, as the Ministry of Health provides needed funding.
“Minister [Josie] Osborne met with Options for Sexual Health in recent weeks and following that directed the Ministry of Health to work with Options for Sexual Health to provide the funding they need to keep their doors open for the next year,” said the ministry in an email.
The news comes after Options for Sexual Health announced in December it would need to close up to 83 per cent of its 52 clinics due to insufficient funding and financial challenges.
While the organization didn’t specify which clinics were at risk of closure, Options runs 13 in the Southern Interior alone, including in Vernon, Lumby, Salmon Arm, Kelowna, Penticton, Sicamous and Nelson.
Now, Options says the Ministry of Health has committed, in principle, to maintaining all of its clinics for the coming year.
Options is also working with the ministry, Provincial Health Services and regional Health Authorities to conduct a strategic review process to “evaluate the future role of Options in B.C.’s health landscape.”
In 2010, Interior Health pulled sexual health services out of public health.
Both the ministry and Options are hoping to keep the clinics open long term.
“The Ministry of Health is also working with them to collectively determine a better approach to maintaining their funding levels in a sustainable way,” said the ministry.
“We are grateful for the services they provide to thousands of people across B.C. Everyone has the right to safe, compassionate and non-judgmental sexual and reproductive care.”
The recent development comes after the group asked communities to share the impact Options had on the public.
“The stories that have been shared with us over the past month have highlighted to us that the services we provide are life changing for some, and life saving for others,” reads a post to the group’s website.
Options has been operating for the past 60 years, providing clinical sexual and reproductive health care to people in B.C. Clinics provide birth control, cervical cancer screening, STI testing and treatment, pregnancy testing and options counselling, and general sexual and reproductive health services.
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