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Clinic Answers Prayers For The Uninsured

posted 01/06/09 5:21 pm

search tags: dream • center • clinic • uninsured

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ABC News 4 - Clinic Answers Prayers For The Uninsured

Free clinic opens in North Charleston

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North Charleston - Nearly 20 percent of the state’s population is without health care.

Now a new clinic run by a church is answering the prayers of some of the uninsured.

Cheryl Robinson is finally getting her aching neck and back checked.

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"My problem is I prolonged it because I didn't have the funds and thank God Seacoast got this clinic here," Robinson said.

The Dream Center Clinic, located at the Seacoast Church North Charleston campus will provide free health care. It is staffed by more than 250 doctors and nurses who are volunteering their time. And everything else, including medical equipment is donated too. The clinic is equipped to handle a variety of illnesses.

"Everything from chronic disease management like diabetes and hypertension to a simple respiratory infection we'll treat," according to Bill Bartoccini, the clinic’s executive director.

Bartoccini says the clinic will serve as the neighborhood doctor's office for the numerous people who have no health care like Isabella Perez who has struggled with medical problems.

"She says she's been sick in the past. She actually had a case where they thought she had cancer and she had to go and rely on the help of other people to pay those bills," said Amie Heath, who runs the children’s ministry at Seacoast.

The Dream Center clinic also has several mobile units that will take health care into the community.

"We will go into retail areas like old North Charleston with one of these mobile units on a regular basis and offer primary health care," Bartoccini explained.

On opening day, the clinic was quite busy.

"We saw several people with high blood pressure, neck pain, we had a pregnancy," Dr. Harold Nicolette said, who serves as the clinic’s medical director.

The Dream Center clinic will be open on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9 in the morning to 12 and from 6 to 9 at night.

Dream Center Clinic patients that need medication can pay a $20 annual fee and receive all of their prescriptions.

For more information, you can contact the Dream Center at 225-1115. The center is located at 5505 North Rhett Avenue.

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