VETERANS HEALTH: Clinic Offers Mobile Clinic for Rural Patients
A Redding, Calif.-based Veterans Affairs clinic has launched a pilot mobile clinic for rural patients, the Scripps-McClatchy News Service/Contra Costa Times reports. Using a medical unit provided by McClellan Air Force Base, the program hopes to reach veterans who are unable, either physically or financially, to travel to Redding for care. Although it is still in the trial phase, Linda Taylor, the program's primary care coordinator, said she expects it to become a regular fixture of the Redding clinic. To justify transportation costs, a doctor must see at least 16 patients on each visit; during a recent trip to the town of Weaverville, 36 patients received care. "We've had such a good response to this that we're planning two additional trips this summer," Taylor said, adding, "The way things are going right now, it looks real good for us starting to do this in more outlying communities on a more regular basis." Noting that the mobile clinic is the only program of its kind on the West Coast, Clinic Director Tony Pineda said of the program, "It's long overdue. It just makes sense." Taylor added, "[Veterans are] entitled to this. They've earned it" (Deuel, 7/17).
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