Importance of Free Clinic in the Community

¶ … Free Clinc That Will Be Opening in My Area

Free clinic opening stands out as a humanitarian measure of contributing back to the community. Free clinic serve to provide easy and affordable medical health care to citizens without medical insurance or the low-income earners (Walker, 2013). As employers suffer the brunt of slow economic performances, they have sought to reduce the benefits they extend to employees as well as reduce their workforce. This in turn has made access to health care a dearer venture in the community as more people fall under the bracket of those capable to pay for medical cover. Operations under the venture of opening a free medical clinic may stand a chance to bridge the widening gap between access to primary health care and falling incomes in the community (Walker, 2013).

To institute a free clinic in a community successfully, comprehensive support from the recipient community and the organization is of importance. Self-driven individuals and persons with a compassion for a healthy community need to take the driving wheel for a successful development of the free clinic (Fernandez-Kelly & Portes, 2013). The initiative calls for a number of operations and procedures that include and are not limited to; supply sourcing, volunteer recruitment, legal arrangements, sourcing for sustainable funding and formulation of a consultancy team for reference on accountancy, insurance and legal issues. On the overall, the type of procedures required for setting up a free clinic will depend on whether the clinic is an individual's initiative or an initiative of an organization in the medical field.

Social Economic Relevance of Free Clinic

Low incomes in the community mean a lower social-economic status. In this status, access to medical covers is low and people seek medical care less often. Individual with low income are more likely to seek medical care when it is an emergency this being a case for poor health care (Brennan, 2013). Since the poor and the low income earners are less likely to take up frequent medical care initiatives, the importance of a free medical clinical in the community cannot be downplayed. Considerations for the economic capabilities in the community serve to advice on the appropriateness of free medical towards achieving higher social economic status in a community.

Community's special Needs

To be able to develop a free clinic in a community it is important to hold appropriate knowledge on the community. The free clinic contributions to the community need to articulate the needs of the community and be located where there is easy access of the target population. Information on the special needs of the beneficiaries needs to be collected and evaluated on the appropriate measure to extend the benefits if the free clinic (Fernandez-Kelly & Portes, 2013). The information gathered on the community may provide statistics such as presence of a higher number of an aging population or higher number of new mothers. This information will guide as to the type of service to concentrate on. In the case where there are high numbers of new mothers a free clinic will need to consider instituting pediatric services. Where there is a higher number of the aging population, there is need for an old age care clinic. The information gathered on the target population advices on the measures and days of operation. This type of planning will suffice to guarantee maximum outreach to the community and optimal utilization of the funds available. With articulate planning, the free clinic will meet the needs of the community and guarantee its sustainability for meeting the needs of the community. The supporting donors will also be in position to maintain their contributions and even possibly increase it.

Volunteer Selection and Recruitment

To achieve a successful implementation of the charitable works of initiating a free clinic team of compassionate, highly self-driven visionaries and fully committed to help is desirable. Volunteer doctors, physicians, clinical officers, pharmacists, nurses, a lawyer and an accountant need to be identified. Additional support from media personnel to help in making know to the community the initiated free clinic is also required. The management committee of the free clinic will need to incorporate the services of an individual capable of coordinating fundraising activities and managing the funds. Upon its initiation, there is need to have a person conversant with the operations of medial cover to serve in advising the community and interested individuals on insurance and medical covers.

Location

In the event that the funds available for initiating the free clinic are not enough, then the organizing committee will need to affiliate itself with a local hospital, Church, school of government agency. This will provide an ideal location and ground for holding on site space for the free clinic. Additional to obtaining grounds for operation, if the funding and organization committee is foreign it is ideal for appropriate affiliation with key community organizations. This will give authenticity to the initiative and allow for a deeper understanding of the community needs.

Funds and Donations Drive

To be able in appropriate ways serve the community, there is need to call for support from affiliate and interested individuals, or organizations. Donations for medical supplies and equipment can be sought from affiliate hospitals and government agencies. Affiliate partnership can also be sought with a local pharmacist of chemist to sell prescribed medicines from the clinic at a subsidized rate. Local business, national and international corporations can be approached through proposals for funding. These aspects will help in mobilization of funds to facilitate in setting up and operation within the clinic exercises.

Resource and Community Database