Black health care professionals in New Orleans, frustrated by a lack of government resources, plan to open a free medical clinic in the Lower Ninth Ward without any city, state or federal funding.
The Lower Ninth Ward Health Clinic, which will begin providing a range of volunteer medical services in the weeks ahead, will be the only health care provider in the city’s black, low-income community, according to the clinic’s administrators.
Since the storm, community leaders say, New Orleans has been struggling to reopen hospitals and critical healthcare services, leaving thousands of black families with either no access to medical care or up to a 14-hour wait in the city’s emergency rooms.
"People are dying every day because of a lack of medical services," Alice Craft-Kerney, administrative director of the Lower Ninth Ward Health Clinic,
told BlackAmericaWeb.com. "People were underserved before Katrina, so the situation has compounded."
The new clinic, she said, is being funded by New Orleans residents with no government assistance. So far, about $95,000 has been raised for the new health care facility, which includes a grant for $60,000 from Direct Relief International.
"If we have regular citizens who can put their nickels and dimes together and open a health clinic in three months, why can’t the city with all of its resources serve our people?" Craft-Kerney asked.
The Lower Ninth Ward, she said, is one of the areas most devastated by Hurricane Katrina, and the governmental response has been slow and insufficient. The clinic’s administrators say they are now working with the city to obtain the proper building permits and hope to open the doors of the neighborhood clinic soon.
"It is amazing what we can accomplish when we put all our talents and God-given gifts together for the betterment of our community," said Craft-Kerney, a registered nurse who quit her job at Charity Hospital after 20 years to open the new clinic. "This is a time of reflection, but also a time of rebuilding."
Craft-Kerney said the free clinic will fill many community needs. Volunteer staff will provide quality health care to all who need it, treating disaster related and chronic illnesses and mental health issues that otherwise would go untreated. The clinic will serve the returning residents who would otherwise go without access to care.
Specifically, the Lower Ninth Ward Clinic aims to offer health support to treat a range of ailments including, but not limited to hypertension, stress, diabetes, cardiac conditions, minor trauma, plus treating respiratory illness and infections.
"In the aftermath that continues post-Katrina, it has become clear we can no longer depend on our government to provide us with the necessary resources to sustain healthy communities," said Michelle Shin, coordinator for the Common Ground Lower Ninth Ward Project.
"We must organize ourselves and work to create the kinds of communities we want to live in," Shin said. "The Lower Ninth Ward Health Clinic is an example of community-based solutions that can be created with partnerships between residents of the Katrina-affected area and community groups from around the country."
Last month, The National Association of Community Health Centers released a new report that provided a comprehensive review on public health care in the Gulf Coast, immediately after Katrina.
The study found that the primary care provided by health centers played a critical role in the days immediately after Katrina. The report recommends that health centers should play a larger role in a rebuilt public health infrastructure.
The study also found:
- Eleven health center sites were completely destroyed by the storm, and more than 80 facilities across Louisiana and Mississippi were significantly damaged, with losses totaling $65 million.
- The authors note that pre-Katrina, there was already a flawed health care system in New Orleans in which a majority of the low-income uninsured residents of New Orleans relied on hospitals.
- Only two federally qualified health centers were located in the New Orleans area, exacerbating the lack of adequate access to neighborhood-based primary care.
- Now in post-Katrina Louisiana, there remain "low rates of private coverage, high rates of poverty, and limited public assistance through Medicaid for adults ... with more than one in five, or almost 900,000 residents, without health insurance."
Craft-Kerney, a longtime New Orleans resident, said she has no health-care insurance herself and only recently received a FEMA trailer on her property in eastern New Orleans. Prior to receiving the trailer, she was living in the Lower Ninth Ward on the second floor of her brother’s flood-damaged home.
She said volunteers with the Lower Ninth Ward Health Clinic include people like Patricia Boskent, a registered nurse who has a master’s degree in nursing and was one of the last medical professionals to leave her post at University Hospital, which was surrounded by the floodwaters after the levees broke on August 29.
Boskent, Craft-Kerney said, was at the hospital for eight days after Katrina struck, and as the city lost power, Boskent and her colleagues continued to treat patients who were awaiting evacuation.
Boskent’s Lower Ninth Ward home was severely flood damaged, yet still standing. In fact, her house is now the site of the health clinic -- 5228 St. Claude Ave. -- after Boskent loaned her property to the clinic’s founders, who repaired and rebuilt the house.
"The city’s health-care system had to be redesigned," Craft-Kerney told BlackAmericaWeb.com. "The future for our people are community clinics instead of one large hospital."
And, she added, her faith now rests with a higher authority.
"I quit my job." Craft-Kerney said. "The Lord told me to take care of my people."
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18-09-06, 10:17 PM
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