For over a month, Planned Parenthood Regina (PPR) has turned away close to 350 people in need of health care as a result of not having a full-time nurse practitioner. “If we had a full-time nurse practitioner, we would be able to reopen for sure,” said board chair Brit Sippola-Kotylak, referring to the clinic being closed for a month and a half. The clinic provides accessible sexual health services and educational programs to people in Regina and surrounding communities. Although it receives funding from the Government of Saskatchewan, the clinic has struggled to recruit a full-time nurse practitioner for more than three years. Sippola-Kotylak said the centre has been getting by through its two part-time nurse practitioners. However, it has not been a sustainable solution and has forced the clinic to temporarily close its doors. “That worked for a bit, but we found that the nurse practitioners were not comfortable using their license that way. Everyone has come to the agreement, from the nursing staff to the nurse practitioners to the admin, is that we need a full- time nurse practitioner,” Sippola-Kotylak said. “Part of that reason is continuity of care, having the same person in the clinic five days a week would be incredible for people who need to do testing that’s over multiple days or [for] follow up appointments, stuff like that. It would be really great if we could get a full-time nurse practitioner to take on running this clinic and offering services again.” The province’s Ministry of Health says it’s aware of the issue. “Planned Parenthood Regina currently receives funding from the Ministry of Health for a variety of services related to sexual health. The ministry is aware of a temporary disruption to some of these services while PPR recruits a full-time nurse practitioner,” read the statement to CTV News. “PPR has advised the ministry that it is continuing to provide healthcare navigation and other services that do not require the professional scope of a nurse practitioner.” The ministry added part of the government’s goal for training and recruiting nurse practitioners continues through its Patients First Health Care Plan initiative. “Saskatchewan is expanding nurse practitioner training to help create capacity and enhance access and services for patients,” the statement read. “Nurse practitioner education has expanded with the addition of 26 new training seats in 2026-27, increasing capacity at the University of Regina and the University of Saskatchewan, and helping to build the workforce needed to improve access to primary care across the province.” In the meantime, Sippola-Kotylak said the clinic will be posting the position soon and encourages people to spread the word. “We just need a little bit more input before we put it out there, but we are hoping to hire a nurse practitioner, the right fit, within the next couple of months,” she said. “We would really love to be able to offer services again in the new year.” PPR celebrates 40 years on Friday On Friday, Oct. 9, Planned Parenthood Regina will be celebrating its 40th anniversary to recognize how long the clinic has provided sexual health services and education to residents in the city and area. The event will also serve as a fundraiser to help support the clinic’s costs for board training and its hiring process. “We are very lucky because we get funded by the provincial government and we have some pretty solid funding, but it’s tough because that covers a lot of the clinical services and some of the stuff like, the roof over our heads, utilities, admin salaries,” explained Sippola-Kotylak. “Then board training and stuff like that comes out of donations. We’re really hoping to build up our monthly donor base because that is money that we can use as we see fit.” People can support the clinic and their event on their website.
