Reproductive health clinic coming to Whitehorse this fall

It still doesn’t have a name, but Yukon’s first ever reproductive health clinic is due to open in Whitehorse this fall.

Dr. Stephanie Buchanan has been a physician in the community for 10 years and a driving force behind the new clinic.

Buchanan says the clinic will address an obvious medical gap in the territory.

“Simply working in the community has shown me the absolute black hole for women’s reproductive health, outside of those women who have access to a family physician. I was seeing things I had not seen down South, which was people accessing emergency care just for birth control and things like that. It’s an obvious need if you practice primary care anywhere in Whitehorse and the territory.”

Buchanan says the clinic will do more than just see patients.

“I think it will be a hub. A centre for sexual education in the community and we are just hoping for it to provide not just the clinical care but also motivation and education for care providers.”

Michelle Wolsky is the lead nurse practitioner in the clinic.

She says there will be a number of services available.

“Anything to do with their sexual reproductive health, contraception, IUD insertion, sexually transmitted infection screening, counselling, referral to specialists, referral back to Dr. Buchanan or Sage Maternity, that kind of thing.”

The new clinic has been in the works since the 1980s, and Buchanan emphasizes that it’s a community effort.

The clinic will be open to everybody, with special program targeting young people.

“Because we know they tend to be the ones who don’t access primary care,’ Wolsky says.

The clinic will run two days a week at the Whitehorse Medical Clinic, and will include some evening hours.