Basic healthcare is everyone’s right. You must have heard of that cliché numerous times, but it hits home as you enter the premise of Wise County Fairgrounds in West Virginia. Healthcare management teams flock to the area along with dressing volunteers and special needs assistants to cater to primary medical needs of thousands of people from both the locale and far off regions.
This medical shelter, to all appearance, looks more like a city fair than a somber Family walk-in clinic. At least not the family walk in clinics the privileged elite of the country are used to. On one end of the medical shelter are camped hundreds of patients, waiting patiently for their turn to receive primary medical care that they cannot afford in routine lives.
The Healthcare Dilemma:
This is why our healthcare management needs to step up; millions of people fall through the cracks in the status quo because access to primary medical care costs hefty sums of money. While some people have programs like Medicaid covering their healthcare and others have insurance, these plans have their flaws.
The cheapest medical insurance you can get mostly does not cover dental problems, and there are millions of poor people who cannot meet the qualification criteria for Medicaid. This results in them receiving little to no medical attention for years at a stretch.
This is why the medical shelter is so crowded. People have camped the area since the past two days, families cue in to get a glimpse of the family walk-in clinic, special need assistants, and medical personnel thread through the throng and volunteers weave through the crowd handing out water and other basic items to those present to prevent dehydration.
What is the Health Camp?
The camp has been organized in Wise County by Remote Area Medical, a nonprofit organization that functions due to private donations and contributions. Apart from a very small team of paid staff, the organization has many volunteers who perform the tasks of handing out supplies, setting up the camp and escorting patients on the venue.
Who volunteers?
Some of these volunteers are qualified medical officials, nurses, special needs assistants and the rest are students. This camp is special because it is run entirely by conscientious individuals devoted to bringing a positive change in the society. People from various fields converge to offer aid in their capacity. There is so much to handle; you can easily find a task that matches your skill set and take over it.
Services offered at the camp:
The family walk-in clinic pops up in Virginia on a late July morning every year, and it lasts for three days during which hundreds of people receive a wide range of services covering dental health, substance abuse, mental health, ENT, mammography, and X-rays. All of these services are free of charge, and that is why this medical shelter is a revolutionary step in the field of Healthcare Management.
There is a need to move ahead and look out for the welfare of our citizens, especially the ones in a vulnerable position owing to their socioeconomic class. Setting up free medical shelters and taking care of people’s primary needs ensures that they will not resort to other methods which include self-medication and drug abuse. There is a strong need to introduce better Healthcare Management policies, so our citizens are not constantly living in pain that renders them ineffective and keeps them from living a healthy life.