Los Angeles Times Profiles Closing Clinic as Los Angeles County Shutters Nine Facilities
Nine of Los Angeles County's 18 public health clinics closed on Friday, and the Los Angeles Times on Saturday examined how the closure of one of those clinics, the Alhambra Health Center, will affect the community (Briscoe, Los Angeles Times, 9/14). The closures are part of a plan approved by the county Board of Supervisors last month to reduce a $710 million budget deficit in the county's health department. Under the plan, the county will close 11 of 18 public health clinics, shutter four school-based health centers and end inpatient services at High Desert Hospital in Lancaster (California Healthline, 9/4). Since opening in 1929, the Alhambra Health Center has been the sole source of medical care for many area residents. Last year, the clinic, which provided prenatal care, immunizations, family medicine and family planning services, treated about 11,560 patients, most of whom had incomes below the state's poverty level, the Times reports. The clinic's closure will force those patients, many of whom walked just a few blocks to the clinic, to seek services at county-run facilities further away (Briscoe, Los Angeles Times, 9/14). Los Angeles County officials will close two more clinics Sept. 30 (Riddle, AP/Contra Costa Times, 9/14).
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