Columbus employees lose free clinic visits

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – Columbus city employees will soon be losing their free clinic visits at Baptist Golden Triangle.

This comes after a string of budget cuts going into the next fiscal year.

There were three agreements like this with Baptist: the city, the county, and Columbus Light and Water.

For something that’s free, you might be shocked to see why this perk is being taken away.

“We, unfortunately, just didn’t have enough people who used it,” said Columbus Chief Operations Officer, David Armstrong.

The city only had this service for eighteen months.

It’s hard to think a free service would go out of commission so quickly, at least that’s Armstrong thinks.

“I don’t know why they didn’t use it over the past 18 months,” the COO said with shrugged shoulders. “I used it five or six time, and it was great. It’s so convenient, in and out, really easily, you know, in just a matter of minutes. It was a great perk for our employees, but it just wasn’t utilized.”

One large group impacted by this cut is the police department, and several officers came to WCBI, off camera, to voice how this is a tough loss.

The city was paying $192,000 a year to give this service to employees, but Armstrong says if not enough people are using it, there isn’t a point in keeping it.

“You know, we had to cut several things, and that was one of them,” Armstrong said. “It’s a nice luxury, but we can’t afford this luxury. I mean, we could afford it. Yeah, we could afford it, but it’s just not… It doesn’t make financial sense.”

The service goes away, effective September 7th.