A non-profit that runs dozens of clinics supporting reproductive and sexual health across British Columbia says it could be forced to close most of its locations without financial help from the provincial government.
Options for Sexual Health directly operates 30 clinics throughout B.C., providing services including birth control and pregnancy support, sexually transmitted infection (STI) testing, along with care and sex education.
The group says it hasn’t seen a meaningful increase in funding in a dozen years. It needs a $1.5 million annual boost to its core funding if it wants to keep all of those clinics open, while it says it could keep 15 running with an $800,000 top-up in bridge funding.
“As we all know over the past 12 years, the cost of living, the cost of doing business, inflation has increased and our core funding just hasn’t been able to keep up,” executive director Tiffany Melius told Global News.
Melius said without new funding, the organization will have to close all but five of its clinics by April.
That could have serious consequences, she said, adding that many rural and remote communities already have little in the way of reproductive or sexual health care.
“If our clinics are not there, if there is no walk-in clinic, if they don’t have a family doctor, they’re either going to have to go to the E.R., have to travel hundreds of kilometres to get these services, or they just won’t access the services at all, which puts our province at a great risk of an STI epidemic,” she said.
Nurses working for Options are already earning as much as 35 per cent less than their peers working under the B.C. Nurses’ Union’s collective agreement, she added.
Options clinics currently serve about 14,000 people per year, with a focus on vulnerable populations including youth, newcomers to Canada, the LGBTQ2+ community and residents and visitors to tourist hubs.
Many of their clients are people who don’t feel comfortable or safe accessing mainstream care, Melius added.
The group has penned an open letter to the provincial government, calling for a long-term, stable increase in funding.
B.C. Health Minister Josie Osborne was unavailable for an interview on Monday.
In a statement, the ministry said it was working with Options and other partners “to find a pathway forward to support the delivery of care.”