Choices celebrates new clinic opening
Choices – a charity that offers highly specialist contraceptive and sexual health services to people of all ages across the Bailiwick of Guernsey – celebrated the official opening of its clinic at North Plantation earlier this month. The official opening ceremony of the new clinic was presided over by the Deputy Bailiff, Jessica Roland. Other key figures in attendance included Dr Nicola Brink, Guernsey’s Director of Public Health.
Describing the significance of the move, Service Manager, Fiona Hardy said: “Our new premises mean that our facilities finally match the high quality of care and service the brilliant team at Choices strive for. I’m also delighted that we have found a home which is more accessible for our community, including those with buggies and wheelchair users. The new clinic gives us an exciting opportunity to develop our services, as we continue to meet the needs of our community and the ever-changing requirements of contraceptive and sexual health provision.”
Members of the Inform Health team, who worked closely with Choices during the pandemic to rapidly spec, build and implement a new, comprehensive health information system, were invited to join the celebration of the charity’s important milestone.
Inform was given special mention in the welcoming speech with Fiona describing how the service was ‘dealt a blow’ when in April last year the charity’s electronic healthcare provider gave notice; giving Choices just 6 months to organise alternative provision.
Addressing the audience, Fiona described the process of partnering with Inform Health and what it means for the future of the service: “Despite the challenges we faced, we focused on what we required, negotiations were commenced, and we were delighted to secure a contract with Inform Health. Due to the constraints of the pandemic, the whole commissioning process and project management had to be achieved remotely but the staff at Inform have gone above and beyond and we have achieved a system that is responsive to our needs with the scope for further development in the future. I am especially pleased to welcome today Sue Bunn, Louise Day and Sam Priest from Inform who arrived yesterday for their first visit and we wish them a warm Guernsey welcome.”
Inform’s Commercial Director, Sue Bunn, comments: “After working remotely with the team at Choices through the pandemic, it was wonderful to finally meet them all in person and help them to celebrate such an important milestone. We thank them for their kind hospitality and look forward to supporting them to achieve their vision of a Bailiwick where every pregnancy is wanted, every person is free from sexually transmitted infections, and everyone has the choice to be sexually active without coercion.”
