CONTACT:

Karen Gottlieb
Executive Director
AmeriCares Free Clinics 

Stamford, CT, May 3, 2003.  Bridgeport: a mobile clinic has begun dispensing free medical care to the needy people in the city's East End. The AmeriCares clinic—a 40-foot van with two examining rooms—is making weekly stops from 1-4 p.m. Tuesdays outside the Newfield branch of the Bridgeport Public Library at 1230 Stratford Ave.

This week, "seven people came by. We saw six people when the van made its first stop on July 22nd." said Karen Gottlieb, executive director of the AmeriCares Free Clinic. "A couple of people had diabetes, a few had hypertension or high cholesterol and one had a leg infection." People who have medical problems, but lack financial resources or insurance, are first screened at the library, where they wait to see a physician in the van. To qualify for care, a person must have no health insurance, meet poverty-level criteria and be at least 16 years old. Guardians must accompany young adults 16 to 18 years old. Patients should bring photo identification cards, proof of income and prescription medical bottles, if they use medicines. Gottlieb said the clinic will likely expand its hours to two days weekly by fall, because many people in Bridgeport lack the insurance needed to provide adequate health care.

AmeriCares officials hope to find a space in a building for a permanent home for its clinic about a year from now. Before the van's debut on Stratford Avenue, about 20 people had regularly traveled from Bridgeport to the AmetiCares clinic in the South Norwalk Community Center at 98 South Main Street, Gottlieb said. St. Vincent's Medical Center and Bridgeport Hospital are working in conjunction with the clinic, which also has the support of the Greater Bridgeport Medical Association and the East End Community Council, the executive director said. However, she said, AmeriCares needs more doctors to volunteer at the clinic as the caseload grows. Currently, two doctors volunteer for the clinic visits. Doctors staffing the clinic will be covered by malpractice insurance provided by AmeriCares, she said.