SAN FERNANDO : Wrecking Ball Takes Down Health Center
The Los Angeles County Department of Health Services began tearing down the San Fernando Health Center on Maclay Street earlier this week.
The center had been vacant since the Jan. 17 earthquake damaged the facility beyond repair.
When the wrecking ball stops swinging and the dust clears--in about 45 days--construction crews will build a 10,000-square-foot temporary replacement building at the site.
A permanent structure will be built there in three to five years, county health officials said.
Since the quake-induced closure, the center’s 45 physicians and nurses have worked out of several different health facilities in the northeast San Fernando Valley, handling an estimated 4,000 patient visits each month.
The adult ambulatory care and immunization clinics are in trailers at the Los Angeles County Courthouse parking lot in San Fernando.
The pediatric and sexually transmitted disease clinic staff treat patients at the Pacoima Health Center, and the tuberculosis clinic operates out of Olive View-UCLA Medical Center.
The temporary replacement structure should be operational by spring, officials said.
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