With an end-of-the-month deadline hanging over its head, the First Steps Early Pregnancy Triage Clinic in Kamloops now has financial security.

Interior Health has announced the Clinic, in a joint agreement between the Ministry of Health and I-H, has been able to secure funding to keep its operations going.

Clinic Lead Joanna Norman tells Radio NL the agreement is for one year, after which a review of their services will be conducted.

She says the expectations are that the funding — details of which have not been disclosed — should end up as an annual renewal to allow the service to continue each year.

Norman says the agreement also allows them to expand the scope of the work they’re doing at First Steps.

“It actually allows us to expand our service somewhat. We’ll be following maternity patients up til 30 weeks of pregnancy, into their 3rd trimester before we need to transfer them to the delivering service for their birth at the hospital,” said Norman in an interview with Radio NL. “It also allows us to provide some post-partum care for people who are unattached and don’t have a family physician or nurse practitioner to return to after they have a newborn in their arms.”

Until now, First Steps had only been caring for individuals until their 20 week mark.

“We want to be here for people at such an important and vulnerable time,” said Joanna Norman, head of the First Steps Early Pregnancy Triage Clinic in a release sent out by Interior Health on Thursday afternoon. “With this funding in place we will be able to care for many more patients seeking prenatal and postpartum care in the community.”

The First Steps Early Pregnancy Triage Clinic was opened in September as a pilot project, with $200,000 in seed money from Interior Health.

That money was due to run out March 31st.

That deadline prompted Kamloops-South Thompson MLA Todd Stone to take up the potential plight of First Steps in the Legislature earlier in March.

While he was unable to make direct commitments at that time, Health Minister Adrian Dix now suggests the Clinic is necessary for the growing needs in Kamloops and the surrounding region.

“The expansion of the innovative and team-based services provided by First Steps Early Pregnancy Triage Clinic are needed to meet the needs of expectant families in Kamloops and surrounding communities,” said Dix as part of the news release.  “The enhanced funding demonstrates our continuing commitment to bolster maternal and newborn health by expanding access to vital prenatal and postpartum care services.”

Located in Tudor Village at 1315 Summit Drive in Sahali, First Steps replaced the interim Midwifery Antenatal Care Clinic at Royal Inland Hospital, which closed in September of last year.

According to Interior Health, the clinic has seen 395 maternity patients in its five months of service, with expectations it can serve approximately 800 patients per year.