Remote Area Medical's first patient today weeps as lead inside

[Liberal_in_LA]

this organization does awesome work. Too bad about the shortage of volunteer medical workers

At 6 a.m. Tuesday, clinic volunteers called out for the first patient. No one responded. So they called No. 2. No. 2, Alisha Brown, is an unemployed mail carrier from Los Angeles. Brown wept as she was ushered inside.

Beside her was Christi Thornton of Inglewood, just licensed as a phlebotomist and also looking for work. The pair met Sunday while waiting for wristbands outside the arena, stayed in touch and waited together Tuesday morning.
“It means everything,” Thornton said of the clinic, “An opportunity to get glasses, dental work — that’s important when you’re trying to get a job.”

Within the hour, Brown had two teeth pulled and Thornton had a new filling. Brown was disappointed to discover she could not get caps on her teeth or a partial bridge. Volunteer dentists are not performing molar root canals, either.

By afternoon, hundreds of patients waited in red folding chairs on the arena floor for eye exams, dental cleanings, HIV tests and Pap smears, among other services. Some eye care stations and dental chairs were unstaffed.

Organizers said they had fewer than the 300 medical volunteers expected, partly due to cancellations, partly due to low turnout among doctors.

They still need dermatologists, ophthalmologists, obstetricians, gynecologists and family practice doctors, said Dr. Natalie Nevins, who was coordinating medical care at the clinic for nonprofit sponsor Amrit Davaa World Health.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/04/free-health-clinic.html

[chill_wind]

1. K & R. n/t

[Liberal_in_LA]

2. more

Many patients waited hours for dental services the clinic does not offer, or had offered in the past but does not now.

Given the limited time and the high volume of patients, dentists at the clinic had been instructed to offer each patient only one service: either a teeth cleaning, extraction or filling.

But in practice, many of the roughly 110 dentists, dental students and hygienists had difficulty refusing patients in need of multiple services. The compassion resulted in delays, organizers said.

With fewer dentists registered to volunteer at the clinic Wednesday, organizers said they will again try to limit services to allow more patients to get help.

"We'll have to be more strict," said Roger Fieldman, volunteer dental director and president of the Los Angeles Oral Health Foundation. "But how do you tell someone who sees this person in need, and gets pleasure from helping them, to say no?"

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/04/free-medical-clinic-runs-short-of-dental-appointments.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+lanowblog+%28L.A.+Now%29

[inna]

4. K&R and.... sigh.

These volunteer medical/dental workers deserve tons of appreciation, but... What a horrible system we have. :(

[Mojeoux]

3. Here is the proof, here is the emperical evidence that can not be ignored.

Americans need health care free for all and these folks prove it.

Anyone who says that America has the "best health care in the world" can talk about the Mayo Clinic all day long but this is where the buck stops.

What a great country we could be if everyone could see a doctor and not worry about losing their home?

[sabrina 1]

5. It is people like this who restore faith in humanity.

It is also a tragedy that the 'greatest country in the world' so desperately needs this service that used to be needed only in third world countries. Also sad that our highly paid doctors can't set aside a day every once in a while to donate their services to the needy.

These people are the real heroes. America has a pretty warped idea of what a hero is, sadly.

[Kitty Herder]

6. K&R