APPNE’s Physicians Volunteer for Free Clinics
The Association of Pakistani Physicians of New England (APPNE) is the New England chapter of APPNA (Association of Physicians of Pakistani Descent of North America). It is a not-for-profit, professional organization, aiming to foster scientific development and education in the field of medicine and delivery of better health care, irrespective of race, color, creed, gender or age. APPNE has served local communities of New England by providing free flu clinics, etc. APPNE also played a role in raising funds and providing services to the victims of earthquake and floods in Pakistan in past few years.
APPNE has been putting a plan together to help the uninsured and under-insured population in the local communities of New England. We have tried to provide healthcare services free of charge to local populations, says a press release. It adds: We have teamed up with the Lowell Community Health Center in Lowell, MA to provide free services to any patient who comes to LCHC through our member volunteer physicians.
LCHC is located at 596 Merrimack Street, Lowell, MA 01854. http://www.lchealth.org/
The program is expected not only to relieve the increasing demand of patient load but also bring in specialty care providers at no cost to the health center to better serve the patient population of Lowell Community. By bringing in the specialty services under the same roof as the primary care services, we expect a better patient compliance with treatment plans. It will also bring better care co-ordination between specialties and Primary Care Clinicians.
Our members are volunteering to provide both Primary care including Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, Psychiatry, Pediatrics and OB/GYN as well as Sub-specialty care onsite at LCHC. LCHC will co-ordinate the schedules for the providers and will provide support staff to help brief triage/rooming of patients, etc. Our organization’s goal is to institute ways and means to cooperate with other medical organizations in North America to help the local communities further and this is a step forward towards that goal.
Initially, three volunteer physicians will start working in October to provide services in the fields of Internal Medicine, Neurology and Dermatology at the current facility of LCHC. There are many volunteer physicians who are eager and ready to work once the new facility/building is ready in December 2012. We are also exploring other similar free service clinics in other areas of New England.
Please contact Dr. Khalil Khatri for details at skinlaser@aol.com or 781-856-4382. The contact person at LCHC is Dr. Kumble Rajesh who can be reached at rajeshms@lchealth.org or 978-746-7855.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
