Children's Aid to shut down medical clinic that serves 290 kids, citing budget deficit

The Children's Aid Society of London and Middlesex (CASLM) will close its medical clinic because of budget pressures, a savings of $260,000 that some fear will hurt the 290 kids who rely on it for primary health care. 

The clinic has operated for 55 years and will close effective April 25, Children's Aid officials wrote in a statement. No one from the agency was available for an interview. 

"The closure of a long-time program that supports primary care for some of our community's most vulnerable children is difficult," the agency's executive director Chris Tremeer said in a written statement. 

The closure comes as the Children's Aid Society faces a $6.9 million deficit, and 15 years of pressure from the province to shut it down and transfer primary health care services to health ministry-funded community partners, officials said.

It follows on the heels of the elimination of its family visitation program, announced in June, which offered a space where families could come visit their children in a supervised setting. 

Children's Aid societies have to operate within their approved budget allocation, the province said in an email Monday. This year, the local agency got $1.8 million more than the previous year, the ministry official said.  

But those who have seen the benefits of the medical clinic, which includes a part-time pediatrician and full-time nurse and an administrative assistant, say kids who need specialized care, as well as the foster parents who care for them, will be left behind. 

"It was a great setup because we had a pediatrician who understood the needs of the kids and families and could advocate for them better than community physicians who are focused on the general population," said Heather Becker, who worked as a nurse and case manager of medically fragile children at the agency starting in 1991 and has recently retired. 

"The foster parents, especially ones caring for very medically complex children like the ones I was serving, said they couldn't do without this clinic because of the support they received." 

Infants, older kids left without primary care

Primary care in the community has evolved since the clinic opened in 1970 and planning is under way to make sure that kids who enter CAS care that don't have a primary doctor can have medical care, officials said. There's also transition planning for each of the 290 current clients who get their care from the internal medical care. 

But nothing will be as good as dedicated staff who understand the complex medical and emotional needs of foster kids, Becker said. "Given the current doctor shortage in Ontario, it will make it more challenging for social workers and caregivers to find physicians to follow these children and if they do, these physicians will not have the time to plan for them thoroughly." 

It will also be more difficult to recruit and retrain specialized foster care families for kids who need medical care without specialized help, said Marian Parent, a former CAS social worker who said she saw assessments, referrals, and treatment done quicker at the clinic than it could have been done in the community. 

"It was a kind of wrap-around care that really could benefit families," Parent said. "By the time these children arrive at the attention of the Children's Aid, there may already be significant delays in medical treatment." 

Youth in care are living in London hotels. Children's Aid explains why it's dangerous

1 year ago

Duration 1:47

The Children's Aid Society (CAS) of London and Middlesex says it's run out of placements for youth. It's had to resort to hotels. Gerry Healy, a crisis intervention specialist with CAS, says something has to change.

Intervening early with proper medical care saves money in the long run, she added.

"If we had a child with a chronic medical condition and we felt their medical needs weren't being met, I could make arrangements through the nurse to get them into the clinic, to have a look at that child to see what was going on. I'm shocked to find out they're closing the clinic because babies and children and parents can get support and proper referrals." 

The Children's Aid Society has an obligation to ensure every child and youth in care has adequate medical services, Carrie Thomas, the agency's director of service said in a statement. "We will work diligently with our community to ensure transitional medical care plans are in place."