Image Credit: Kent Simmonds / CFJC Today

By Dylana Kneeshaw

MATERNITY CARE IN KAMLOOPS

Early pregnancy clinic in Kamloops anxiously awaiting answer to full-time funding request

Feb 15, 2024 | 6:00 PM

KAMLOOPS — There’s approximately a month-and-a-half left of grant funding to keep its doors open, but the people behind the First Steps Early Pregnancy Triage Clinic are feeling nervous about the impending expiry date at the end of March.

Joanna Norman, clinic lead, says the clinic is hoping to have confirmation soon about whether its permanent funding request through Interior Health has been approved.

“I am hopeful that there might be some kind of bridge funding that is accessible until that kind of long-term plan falls into place,” she adds.

The clinic was set up to respond to the number of unattached patients who have to go to the emergency room, or Royal Inland hospital’s Urgent Care Clinic for pregnancy care. At any given point, Norman says First Steps has around 170 active patients using its service, up to around 20 weeks’ gestation.

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Norman says the clinic has become a vital part of the pregnancy healthcare system in Kamloops.

“We’re actually hoping with the funding proposal that we have in to Interior Healt,h we can actually expand our services to provide care for a longer duration in [patients’ pregnancies]. And that would be key to helping to make sure those people do have the care they need,” says Norman. “Hopefully alleviating some burden on the Thompson Region Family Obstetrics (TRFO) group, as well.”

Norman is also the head of midwifery through Royal Inland Hospital, and says there are capacity issues at all levels in the maternity care referral process. Annual funding for First Steps would mean the clinic could continue providing services such as pre-natal check ups and appointments, monitoring, and hopefully follow the care of patients further along in their pregnancies and in the postpartum stage.

As a care provider, Norman says she and others in the healthcare spectrum “feel terrible” about the capacity issues, and hope to see long-term, sustainable solutions.

“When you already have a system that is burdened by more demand than we have the capacity to take, the loss of this clinic would just amplify that really significantly,” she reiterates. “I just don’t know where all those people would go for care.”

CFJC also spoke with a first-time parent, who did not wish to be identified, who worries for the future of prenatal care. She’s been navigating the healthcare system with a declined referral to the Thompson Region Family Obstetrics (TRFO) clinic in Kamloops, and is now hearing of funding concerns at the First Steps clinic.

“I had to go advocate for myself and find my own care in a separate, different city,” says the woman. She explains that it was a shock to find out that even with her underlying health conditions, consistent pre-natal monitoring wasn’t easy to attain.

“They don’t have enough resources either, so it’s not fair to blame the TRFO. But systemically, something needs to happen. There needs to be some kind of change to what’s going on. It’s awful.”

Norman at the First Steps clinic says she is trying to remain optimistic, while waiting for an answer about its full-time funding proposal. In the meantime, people in the community who don’t want to see fewer maternity care options plan to make their voices heard.

“I hope that something comes from this,” said the expectant parent. “Some kind of change. Something. It has to.”