New Orleans area residents without health insurance will have access Saturday to a massive free health clinic that organizers say will boast at least 400 medical professionals and support workers with resources to serve at least 2,000 patients.
The event, which will take up 166,000 square feet at Ernest M. Morial Convention Center, is the second nationally this year in a series of health fairs sponsored by the Louisiana Free Clinic Association and the National Association of Free Clinics, a not-for-profit based in Washington, D.C.
Doors are open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., with 2,000 appointment slots available, plus the ability to take some walk-ups. No one will be charged. Uninsured or underinsured individuals can make appointments by calling 877.233.5159.
Dr. Rani Whitfield, a Baton Rouge physician acting as medical director for the clinic, said he also wants more medical professionals — from specialist physicians to emergency medical technicians and medical administrators — to help staff the event.The staff will offer general medical exams and limited lab tests and will give all patients information about where they can get follow-up care. As of Tuesday evening, immunizations were not part of the plans, though organizers said they would accept any contributed vaccine supplies.
Nicole Lamoureux, executive director of the national clinics organization, said, “We want to underscore what goes on every day at 1,200 free clinics around the country.” But, she said, “Free clinics are just a Band-Aid on a much larger problem” of access.
That network of facilities served about 4 million people in 2008, Lamoureux said. The economic downturn will push the total above 8 million this year, she said.
National research suggests that as many as 70 percent of the clientele at free clinics come from homes where at least one adult works full-time. Whitfield said Louisiana clinics have similar numbers. “Uninsured does not necessarily mean unemployed,” he said.
More than a fifth of Louisianians — nearly all of them adults, given the success of government programs covering children — have no insurance.
The series of mass clinics are designed to make uninsured patients aware of what services are available and to call attention to the difficulty that many Americans have in accessing quality care. In Houston, the one-day event drew almost 2,000 people. Future stops include Little Rock, Ark., and Kansas City, Mo.
