Health care more accessible to poor

Low-income residents in the Framingham area who could not afford medical care at the region's hospitals and doctors' offices have been driving some 20 miles away to a health center in Worcester that offers care for free or on a sliding-scale basis.

But that trip just got much shorter.

The Framingham Community Health Center opened for the first time this month at 19 Concord St. in downtown Framingham, offering a full range of medical care to area residents. While the center is open to all residents regardless of income, health care advocates say the center will fill a much-needed gap in providing basic health care services to the area's poorest patients.

"A lot of low-income people would only go to a doctor on a crisis basis," said Carlos Cunningham, director of the Framingham Resource Center for the South Middlesex Opportunity Council, a Framingham-based social services agency that serves low-income residents and immigrant populations. "They were too poor to get basic medical checkups and go to follow-up visits. That was the biggest problem. Those crises could have been avoided if they had access to some basic care. Now, they do."

In its first week, doctors at the Framingham center saw about 10 patients a day, and the caseload is expected to increase as more local agencies who work with low-income residents refer them to the health center for primary care, according to officials at the center.

Dr. Janet O. Yardley, the medical director of the new health center, said the facility is staffed with two full-time doctors, one part-time doctor, and about five support staff.

"This is a community health center that really serves the community," said Yardley, who is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese. "We welcome people from all walks of life and all income levels, and we accept people from all over, not just Framingham."

Those without health insurance were previously forced to rely upon a hodgepodge of clinics that offered partial services or were open for only part of the time. The Great Brook Valley Health Center in Worcester alone handled about 12,000 visits annually from residents in the Framingham area, according to Zoila Feldman, chief executive officer of that center.

Service agencies who work with low-income residents and immigrant families have pushed for years to bring a similar community health center to town.

Last summer they got their wish, and Great Brook Valley secured one of only two federal grants awarded in Massachusetts last year. The facility received $856,375 -- nearly $200,000 more than expected.

"I think it only demonstrated how much a community health center was needed in the area," Feldman said.

The health center expects to keep running by reapplying for government grants and turning to the MetroWest Community Health Care Foundation, which has pledged money to the facility.

Cunningham, who works mostly with low-income Russian, Brazilian, and Latino residents, said about three-quarters of the clients the resource center serves are either uninsured or under-insured. So far, he has referred eight residents to the clinic in a span of a few days.

Gerard Desilets, the director of planning at SMOC, said the center would relieve some of the burden from local emergency rooms, where residents without insurance often go for care. Recent cuts to health care for low-income people has made it especially difficult for some residents to get the medical attention they need, he said.

"The health center presents a tremendous opportunity for literally thousands of people in the Metrowest area who were unable to access health care before," he said.

Eun Lee Koh can be reached at ekoh@globe.com or 508-820-4238.