Pap tests are victims of budget cuts

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The local health facility will no longer offer Pap smears, a supplemental service it offered to women without a family doctor, as the agency has faced a “budget erosion” in recent years.

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In a statement on Thursday, Leeds, Grenville and Lanark Health Unit announced a number of changes to its ongoing sexual health clinics, including discontinuing Pap smears, a routine procedure that women must undergo every three years to test for cervical cancer.

Health unit spokeswoman Susan Healey said that while they offered the tests, they were not part of the health unit’s core mandate — it was an above-and-beyond agency service based on request. local.

She said, however, because of “changing STD demographics and a review of community needs and organizational capacity, we identified the need for our health unit to focus more substantially on other urgent needs for sexual health services “.

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This includes the need to improve health facility information services to high-risk populations in response to the increasing risk of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) such as syphilis.

The Government of Canada reports that rates of infectious syphilis have increased across the country by 109% in the past four years. To explain the sudden increase and help tackle the problem locally, the health unit says it needs to focus its efforts in this area.

“Given (the) budget erosion of local health facilities over the years, there has been a need to prioritize the services we provide,” Healey said.

“In line with this, we have made changes to our sexual health programme, including unfortunately a loss of our PAP testing services.”

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Healey said the health facility’s budget has not kept up with rising costs over the past five years. The organization’s core budget for its core business was $13.1 million in 2019, and the estimated budget for 2024 is $14.1 million.

That’s roughly a 1.5% annual increase over five years, an amount it said was “much less than the increase in our costs over that time period”.

According to the province, Pap tests fall under the mandate of primary health care providers such as doctors and nurses.

For those without access to a family doctor, the province directs patients to check with their public health units, sexual health clinics and community health centers that may also offer the service.

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“We recognize that, unfortunately, there are many in our communities who have limited access to primary care services,” Healey said.

Now that it’s no longer offered at the health facility, she said people without a regular primary care provider can access the service through Rideau Community Health Services’ women’s clinic or through regional gynecologists by getting a referral from a walk-in or virtual care clinic.

The sexual health clinics, available at seven different locations in Leeds, Grenville and Lanark, will offers free STI testing and treatment, immunization for human papillomavirus (HPV), hepatitis A, hepatitis B, and MPOX (formerly known as monkeypox), relationship counseling and sexual health decision-making, and other sexual health services , such as -cost and free contraceptives and pregnancy counseling and referrals.

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A medical assistant is also available at some clinics, meaning officials have been able to expand some services to include IUD placement and removal, as well as to address more complex sexual health issues.

“This helps reduce barriers for clients by providing a quick path to a provider, providing sexual health services to clients who do not have a primary care provider, and by reducing the number of visits clients need to make to receive care.” health facility officials said in a prepared statement.

Clinics want wherergo a number of other changes, the health facility reported, including a change in hours of operation.

The Brockville clinic will now have extended Thursday hours from 11am to 7pm and there will be no clinic on Mondays. The Gananoque, Perth and Carleton Place clinics will be by appointment only, with no walk-ins allowed.

“Staff are non-judgemental, welcoming people of all ages, genders and sexual orientations into safe and positive spaces. Clients attending these clinics do not need to have a health card or primary care provider.”

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