Countywide : Merger of Health Clinics Approved

The Ventura County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved a plan to consolidate eight health clinics and to establish a new branch of a mental health outreach program in Oxnard.

Under the plan, eight clinics in Oxnard will be consolidated into one at the Centerpoint Mall at Saviers Road and Channel Islands Boulevard. The new clinic is expected to open early next year.

The plan was praised as “exactly the kind of thing we need” by Supervisor Maggie H. Erickson. “It makes sense from the point of view of the clients and from the point of view of the clinics,” she said.

Six of the eight clinics serve residents of Oxnard, Port Hueneme and Camarillo by providing immunizations, family planning services and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases. The two other clinics, which provide a range of medical services in south Oxnard and the La Colonia neighborhood, may remain open after the consolidation, said Phillipp K. Wessels, director of the County Health Care Agency.

The new clinic at the Centerpoint Mall will also offer prenatal and pediatric care, sparing women and children in need of such care from having to travel to the County Medical Center in Ventura.

Wessels estimated the cost of converting two former stores in the mall to be about $950,000. The funds will be provided by Ventura County Medical Center revenues and other funds already allocated, he said.

The supervisors also approved the leasing of a former J.C. Penney store at 555 S. A St. in Oxnard to house a team from the Mental Health Department’s Small Community Outreach Treatment and Support, or SCOTS, program.

Four teams now serve Oxnard as part of SCOTS, which is funded by a $16-million state grant for the development of outreach systems, said Dr. Duane Essex, the department’s deputy director.