Medical Clinic Could Open by End of the Year : Moorpark: New facility for the poor would replace one that was closed in 1993. Supervisors will vote next week whether to approve the lease.

A new medical clinic for the poor could open in Moorpark by the end of the year if Ventura County supervisors approve a lease on Tuesday.

The new clinic would replace a dilapidated facility on High Street that was closed in October. Since the closure, Moorpark residents who are on Medi-Cal or who lack insurance have had to go to Simi Valley for care, Supervisor Vicky Howard said.

“We wanted to open a new clinic almost immediately after the old one was closed,” Howard said. “But we had more problems trying to get this lease then I can tell you. It was like dealing with New York lawyers, all the negotiating that went on.”

The county worked with Moorpark officials to find a building large enough to contain examining rooms, a records room and a reception area. The site also had to be near public transportation. Officials were frustrated after negotiations over vacant space in the Moorpark Town Center fell through a few months ago.

“We finally had to give up and start over,” Howard said. “I think, though, that we’ve finally found the place.”

The county plans to open the clinic in the Campus Park neighborhood near Moorpark College. City leaders wondered whether the proposed site, at the Varsity Park Shopping Center off Princeton Avenue and Campus Park Drive, was the best location.

“I’m not really sure if that area is the right niche for this kind of clinic,” said Councilman John Wozniak. “I would think somewhere downtown would be more appropriate, but they do have bus service that goes right by there and they are within walking distance of the Virginia Colony.”

Paul Henkels, manager of the Simi Valley Clinic, estimated that of the more than 3,000 patients that the Simi clinic has seen in the last six months, 700 to 800 came from Moorpark.

“There definitely is a need,” he said. “And from my experience in Simi, once it is open I imagine they will find an even greater need than they imagine as people (from Moorpark) who can’t make it to Simi will go to the new clinic.”

The county plans to spend about $220,000 constructing the examining rooms, records room and reception area at the new site. Rent for the 4,400-square-foot storefront is $5,000 a month, Health Care Agency officials said.

Details have not been disclosed about how many days a week the facility will be open or the number of doctors and nurses who will work there.

The Simi Valley Clinic is open six days a week and is staffed by two doctors, a family nurse practitioner, and another nurse, Henkels said. He said the Moorpark site might not be open as many days, but would have a similar number of doctors and nurses.

Howard is hopeful that the clinic will open soon.

“I’ve been expecting it to open for some time, and I expect that the board will easily approve the proposal,” she said.