Interfaith Health Clinic Staff Sets Meeting Aug. 17 to Decide on Future

By Mark E. Jones, The Times Leader, Wilkes-Barre, Pa.

Aug. 10–WILKES-BARRE — The Interfaith Health Clinic, which suspended service earlier this summer, will remain closed through August, said coordinator Kathy Thrapp.

The free clinic based in St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church on South Franklin Street had been providing health care to more than 100 people per month.

However, due to changes with a Veterans Administration residency program, volunteer doctors no longer were available to treat patients during the clinic’s limited hours of operation on Wednesday mornings and Thursday evenings.

Interfaith served the area’s "working poor" for about a decade.

A meeting to determine the charitable program’s fate will be held later this month, Thrapp said. "We are having a staff meeting on the 17th, and we will be making some decisions then as to whether we will reopen or close permanently."

Other part-time clinics continue to operate at sites across the Wyoming Valley, including in Wilkes-Barre, Shavertown and Mountain Top. A church group in Pittston recently proposed the startup of a treatment facility there. It could open as soon as this fall, said Deacon Jim Cortegerone, of St. John the Evangelist Church.

Likewise, an effort has been under way for more than two years to establish a full-time, free medical clinic in Wilkes-Barre. A source familiar with that project said "it’s actually moving forward and I expect … a major announcement in September."

People seeking non-emergency care at an area clinic can locate one by calling Help Line, a 24-hour information and referral service serving residents of Luzerne and Wyoming counties. Its toll-free phone number is 1-888-829-1341.

Mark E. Jones, a staff writer for The Times Leader, can be reached at 831-7305.

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