Community Collectives, the Medical Committee for Human Rights, West End and Loop area residents, and students from the city’s medical schools will soon put into operation a free community health clinic. The clinic will offer general medical treatment, including check-ups, skin disorders treatment, diagnostic lab test screening for TB, sickle cell anemia, diabetes, and lead poisoning, venereal disease treatment and follow-up, and well-baby clinic services.
Also planned are courses in first aid, health care literature, films and seminars, referrals to other facilities for x-rays and more extensive diagnostic procedures and treatment, as well as help with admissions to hospitals, clinics, or specialists.
The area that will be served, including the Loop and far West End, is severely lacking in the services listed; the inaccessibility of presently existing facilities precludes their use by many members of our community. The clinic is planned as a means of providing these services and as a center for community organization and activity, where neighborhood people can discuss our needs and begin to act upon them.
The clinic now has enough equipment, funding, and manpower to begin operations. A local church has expressed interest in providing basement space, and once final agreement has been reached, we will be ready to begin work.
The clinic needs further help from our neighborhood: plumbers, carpenters, and electricians (union and non-union) will be needed to prepare the facilities for use. Nurses, para-medical assistance, and clerical staffing will be a constant need. Most of all, those of us presently working on the project feel that the fullest possible participation by the community is necessary not only in the operation of the clinic but right now, in the early planning and decision-making. We would like to see the clinic eventually run by an active board of community residents and clinic workers.
HELP!
Community Collectives are a group of area residents interested in building a community of people working together to be able to establish and make decisions over those services and institutions that we need. Meetings are Monday evenings, 7:30 P.M., 6106 McPherson.
MCHR is a national organization of health professionals and consumers who believe health care is a human right, and that all people should have the power to determine health needs and implement health care.
For information, call 863-6790 or 863-8763.
Originally published in The Paper, March 1972.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times1972_03.pdf, printed page 6.
