By Denise Allabaugh, The Citizens’ Voice, Wilkes-Barre, Pa.
Jun. 24–WILKES-BARRE — With no job and no health insurance, Agnes Barberio came to the Volunteers in Medicine free medical clinic Monday seeking relief for a variety of health problems after being turned away at other places.
The 49-year-old Larksville resident formerly worked at Lord & Taylor until 2004 when she got sick. Her husband is disabled and does not work.
Barberio was one of several uninsured people who sought medical attention at the clinic, which opened Monday at 190 N. Pennsylvania Ave., Wilkes-Barre. The volunteer-based medical center will provide a wide range of medical services, including primary health care for the uninsured and the underinsured in Luzerne County, services Barberio said she needs.
“I’m always in constant pain,” Barberio said, while bursting into tears in a treatment room in the new clinic while waiting to see Dr. Susan Sordoni, the only doctor volunteering Monday. “We have been calling trying to get some kind of insurance off TV and I can’t afford it.”
Sordoni, the clinic’s founder, was busy on opening day seeing 10 patients who scheduled appointments and three others who walked in seeking medical care.
“This is a sign that people have been waiting and need the care,” Sordoni said. “Primary health insurance is extremely costly. People have jobs and their employers cannot supply the insurance because they cannot afford to supply the insurance. If people don’t have a clinic like this, they will go to the emergency room and pay 10 times the cost or more.”
According to figures provided by Volunteers in Medicine, more than 35,000 residents in Luzerne County do not have access to or cannot afford health insurance. While the clinic was set up to serve the working poor who don’t have health insurance, Sordoni said everyone who walks in the door would be seen. If they cannot be helped at the clinic, volunteers will direct them to the right services.
“If people don’t have jobs and don’t have primary care insurance, they become our patients,” Sordoni said. “If they qualify as a patient for this medical center, we will see they have all they need. Others have access to other insurance and we will help them find it.”
Sordoni plans to maintain her practice in Kingston and will recruit other doctors to volunteer at the free clinic. Renovations are still being completed. The clinic has two treatment rooms and will eventually offer additional treatment rooms as well as dental and eye care and a pharmacy, said Kelly Ranieli, executive director for the clinic.
“We’re in the process of organizing all the volunteer physicians,” Ranieli said. “The nurses will be volunteers.”
The clinic also will employ a paid medical director, who has not yet been hired, a nursing director and an administrative assistant, Ranieli said. Corporate donations and foundation grants are funding the clinic, which was planned for more than three years, she said.
Sister Lucille Brislin of Mercy Services, who works with low-income families and who accompanied an uninsured woman Monday, credited Sordoni for opening the free clinic.
“She has been committed for years to the establishment of this clinic, which serves a desperate need for health care,” Brislin said. “Without people like Dr. Sordoni and her co-workers and the volunteers, the health care crisis would be far more intensified than it already is.”
[email protected], 570-821-2115
Info box: Volunteers in Medicine free health clinic at 190 N. Pennsylvania Ave. in Wilkes-Barre will be open Mondays through Fridays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The volunteer-based clinic will provide a wide range of services, including primary and preventative health care and eventually dental and eye care to the uninsured and underinsured in Luzerne County. To schedule an appointment or to volunteer, call 970-2864.
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