AIDS Clinic at Harbor-UCLA Doubles in Size : Medicine: Patients hail the $515,000 expansion at the facility, which now has 15 examining rooms. The staff has not grown, but one doctor says waiting times should decrease.

A newly expanded AIDS clinic opened Thursday at Los Angeles County Harbor-UCLA Medical Center amid predictions it will significantly improve care for people suffering from AIDS and the virus that causes it.

The $515,000 expansion has doubled the amount of space at the Harbor-UCLA clinic, which is already one of the busiest county AIDS facilities, caring for 1,200 patients from as far as Las Vegas. With new equipment and 15 examining rooms, up from nine rooms previously, the clinic will be able to examine and treat patients more quickly, officials say.

Patients are applauding the change.

“They’re prepared for the growth, as more and more people become diagnosed or need people to care for them,” said Brian Lowe, 32, a South Bay resident with acquired immune deficiency syndrome who has been treated at the Harbor-UCLA clinic for a year.

Patient Guy Richards, 61, recalled his first visits to Harbor-UCLA six years ago, when he joined in testing an antiviral drug. In those days, he said, research patients were seen in a cramped corner of a barracks. Some patients had to stand on a porch while learning how to inject themselves with medication, he said.

“I’ve watched them grow and grow . . . from a shoe box to almost a baronial clinic,” said Richards, who is HIV-positive.

The new clinic was dedicated Thursday morning at an upbeat ceremony outside the nondescript, one-story clinic building, known as “N-24.” Bunches of multicolored balloons adorned the clinic walkway, and county Supervisor Yvonne Braithwaite Burke was on hand to promise that the county would work to stem the spread of AIDS.

The clinic is the only county facility serving South Bay residents with AIDS or HIV. Of the clinic’s 1,200 patients, about half are Anglo, 30% are Latino, 25% are black and 2% are Asian. Women constitute about 10% of patients.

Harbor-UCLA ranks second among the five county hospitals that treat AIDS patients and those with the human immunodeficiency virus. County-USC Medical Center sees the largest number of them.

The heavy demand reflects the fast-rising number of reported AIDS cases in the county, from 4,243 in December, 1987, to 17,120 in December, 1992. Faced with a growing need for services, Harbor-UCLA clinic workers began trying to improve their facility six years ago.

The expansion involved the renovation of an older building and the construction of an addition assembled from four trailers.

Spearheading the efforts was Dr. Gildon Beall, chief of allergy and clinical immunology at Harbor-UCLA.

“We hope with increased space we can be more efficient, so that waiting time will go down,” Beall said. Although the staff has not grown, Beall hopes to add staff in the future.

Funding for the expansion came mainly from three sources: $175,000 from the federal government, $200,000 from the county and about $100,000 from Harbor-UCLA. But Beall singled out a $3,000 donation from students at the private Chadwick School on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. The students helped raise money for the clinic during walk-a-thons in 1988 and 1989.

The county has been criticized by AIDS activists for not dealing effectively with the onslaught of AIDS cases. But the Harbor-UCLA program and its staff drew praise Thursday from patients who have seen the clinic function firsthand.

“Generally, it is a very good, positive environment,” Lowe said. “You really feel that they do care.”

Said Richards: “They’ve totally kept me alive. They took care of us like we were little children. . . . They were our mothers, our fathers, our brothers, our sisters. Our family.”