County closes Wichita clinic for low-income pregnant women, new moms and infants

Sedgwick County is closing a clinic for low-income pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers, infants and young children amid a staffing shortage.

The Stanley Clinic of the Sedgwick County Women, Infants and Children — or WIC — Program at 1749 S. Martinson will be closed until the county can hire three registered dietitians and one registered nurse needed to operate the facility. In a Friday afternoon news release, the county called the closure temporary but did not say when the clinic could reopen.

It’s unclear how the closure will affect the thousands of women and children who rely on the program for food and health assistance. Sedgwick County officials were not immediately available for comment Friday afternoon. The news release says existing appointments at the Stanley Clinic will be transferred to the Sedgwick County Health Department at 1900 E. 9th St.

Sedgwick County’s Ninth Street facility and the Clifton Clinic at 1131 S. Clifton, Suite A, will remain open as WIC providers. WIC clients can call 316-660-7444 with questions or to reschedule any appointments.

The WIC program — funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and administered by state and county governments — offers financial assistance to help feed pregnant women, new mothers and children under age 5. It also provides nutrition education to promote healthy eating habits and health, referrals to community and health agencies for additional support, and free breastfeeding support and education classes for new mothers.

Last year, Sedgwick County’s Women, Infants and Children program enrolled 15,668 people in the program. It also helped pay for nearly $6 million in groceries as part of its nutritional food items through WIC electronic benefit cards, according to the county budget report.

The Stanley Clinic is the second county facility that serves children to close in the past two months because of staffing problems. In June, the Kansas Department for Children and Families suspended the Juvenile Residential Facility because the county did not have enough employees to safely operate, moving up to 24 juvenile offenders to a higher-security detention facility.