As a board member of Friends of the Portland Community Free Clinic, I’ve followed the debate regarding the proposed closure of the India Street Public Health Center with considerable concern.

While the public has been told that the services will be transferred to the Portland Community Health Center without loss of care to current patients, these assurances do not seem supported by the facts.

The India Street center houses a number of vital public health programs:

 The only sexually transmitted disease screening and treatment clinic in the state.

The only needle exchange program in Maine at a time when we have an epidemic of heroin use and rapid increases in deaths from overdoses and contaminated drugs.

The only comprehensive primary care treatment available 24/7 to those living with HIV and AIDS.

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The Portland Community Free Clinic, which offers comprehensive primary care and case management to working adults who are low-income and uninsured.

Is it realistic, prudent or fair to expect the Portland Community Health Center, which itself was recently struggling with a $500,000 budget shortfall (Feb. 8), to take on major new programs and the management of approximately 2,000 new patients without ongoing city support?

Many of these patients have complex health care needs, and many are uninsured. Further, the Portland Community Free Clinic, whose patients are not slated for transfer to the Portland Community Health Center, will be left homeless by closing the India Street center.

The rationale offered for the proposed closing is that it has always been part of the plan to transfer the city’s public health programs to the Portland Community Health Center. An intention is not the same as a developed plan of action. The citizens of Portland deserve a more carefully crafted plan to ensure the continuation of high-quality public health services at a time of increasing need.

Beth Kilbreth

Portland


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