The Clinic That Won’t Say No

The new headquarters of the Los Angeles Free Clinic will be dedicated Monday, an occasion to reflect on an extraordinary 23-year history of community service--and to celebrate the generosity of those who donated the $2.5-million building and underwrite the $1.6-million budget, and of the 450 volunteers (the doctors, dentists, lawyers, nurses, pharmacists, technicians, all kinds of helpers) who provide the care.

Officials did not wait for the ribbon-cutting to press into service the new, three-story facility at 8405 Beverly Blvd. A general medicine clinic Tuesday evening inaugurated the health-care facilities, while down the hall a lawyer conducted a seminar for those facing divorce, and expanded psychological counseling services got under way in another suite. Fifty patients brought with them earaches, flu symptoms, gonorrhea, scabies, sore throats, hypertension and a urinary-tract infection. They were treated by a team of five, led by a medical doctor, with two resident physicians from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and two physician assistants. The last patient left at 10 p.m.

“We know that two or three persons are denied timely health care for every one we can see,” a staff member lamented. Already there is an eight- week waiting time for psychological counseling. And the four-chair dental clinic may never see full service because of difficulties in recruiting dentist volunteers.

The clinic remains stubbornly committed to its founders’ promise of free care for everyone. The refusal to screen according to income limits government support to 35% of the budget. But the board of directors is determined not to change. That commitment is more than reassuring to the 22,000 who came for care last year, to the 15,000 with active case files.

In a day when 37 million Americans have no health insurance, when Medi-Cal patients have difficulty finding a doctor who will see them, the clinic is a splendid anomaly.