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Free Medical Clinic

C
Caduceus

As many of you know, I'm a family physician.  I've been kicking around in my head about trying to pull together a free medical clinic for my area (rural South Carolina) for the uninsured and underinsured aimed primarily at those with chronic medical disorders - hypertension, diabetes, chronic lung disease.

The bug has really bitten me in the last few days and I've started pulling ideas together trying to see if I can get a proposal together for the powers that be - the local hospital, medical clinics, insurance companies, pharmacies and pharmaceutical companies.

Optimally, I'd like to open one evening a month with a plan to eventually be open once a week in the evenings, providing free or extremely low-cost prescription (non-controlled) medicines for individuals who cannot access health care.

This is likely to be Herculean task, in addition to the fact that I'm already involved in too many boards - the local hospital, the state medical association, the infection control physician representative - and I just found out today that one of the doctors in our call group has decided to leave, which puts me in a 1:4 call situation, which isn't horrible, but not nearly as nice as 1:5.

I guess I am just thinking right now, but it would be a definite asset to this community.  The problem, as always, is who will pay for it?

Comments (6)

B
BalekFekete·
From the Pharmaceuticals/Diabetes side, feel free to visit our resource page for physicians: http://www.novonordisk-us.com/documents/promotion_page/document/hcp_resource3.asp\r \r I'm not sure exactly WHAT is available, but it'd be a start. :)
C
Caduceus·
Thanks Balek
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pearly_54·
Wow! Impressive venture. But much needed! Good luck!
M
meemoos·
If only there was more of \"you\" around!!!!\r \r woo hooo for you!!!
J
JPNor·
This sounds like a major time investment and an incredibly magnanimous gesture for your community. If you have a place to set this up once a month, I'm sure you would see some immediate support from others in the community, and maybe even a crew of additional volunteer medical staff. Best of luck, keep us updated!
H
H2Daddy·
My dad was a doctor and did the same thing once or twice a month. Seems like it was through the University of Tennessee but I am not sure. It wasn't something he started. He just volunteered his time. Best of luck with it. Much like TN, SC has it's share of people who need help.