A new healthcare clinic in the small city of Wheeler increases capacity and services in northern Tillamook County at a time when local leaders expect to see a growing need for care under certain Trump administration policies.
The Nehalem Bay Health Center & Pharmacy opened for patients this week. The new facility is nearly three times the size of an older version just up the hill which had served the area for decades.Â
Importantly, noted officials who attended a ribbon cutting and dedication ceremony last weekend, the new center remains a federally qualified health center.
“Everyone is welcome, regardless of the ability to pay,” said Tillamook County Commissioner Erin Skaar, “and that is a really big piece in these communities, but also in the environment that we’re currently going into where we expect to see the availability of affordable health insurance be reduced, we expect to see Medicaid be reduced.”
“Having a clinic that can take people on a sliding fee scale, and is really here for everyone, is going to be absolutely critical,” she added.
Wheeler Mayor Denise Donohue said the clinic provides important access to new services in the community like dental care and x-ray, but also vital mental health services.
“These are not luxuries,” she told a large crowd gathered outside the new center. “And today we are celebrating that these services are no longer miles away or out of reach, but here in our home.”
Voters in the Nehalem Bay Health District approved a $10.25 million bond for the health center project in 2023 — a key piece of funding, officials said, and a literal vote of confidence.Â
The project came in on time and under budget, said Marc Johnson, president of the Nehalem Bay Health District which owns the building and facilitated its construction.
Local and regional leaders and officials attended the opening ceremony for the new center including U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, State Senator Suzanne Weber, State Representative Cyrus Javadi and Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read.
Bonamici congratulated the community on the new center and nodded to Democrats’ healthcare demands with the ongoing shutdown of the federal government, saying she is “ready and willing and able to work with anyone and any party at any time to pass a budget that does not decimate healthcare for Oregonians.”
“Sometimes I feel like in (Washington) D.C., they’re kind of detached from the reality of what people need in communities like this,” she said, “and I know that hospitals and clinics like this one here at Nehalem Bay are vital parts of the community and the infrastructure and make such a difference…not just for the people who live here but to the economy, to the region.”