Updated: 7/24/2009 7:25:15 AM
While Congress and the President battle over healthcare reform, medical volunteers in Cleveland are taking action by offering a free health clinic to the uninsured and underinsured.
This weekend, hundreds of people are expected to receive medical, dental and vision services at no cost.
Jean and Mark Sandor are like thousands of Americans caught in the healthcare crisis. Mark is unemployed, and Jean really needs to see a doctor. "I'm like half paralyzed I've got pain that shoots down from my fingers, my wrist and my whole arm," Jean said.
Jean's suffered for weeks because she doesn't have health insurance. "The pain is really severe I've been taking ten to twelve aspirins a day I can't hardly sleep at night because I can't get comfortable," she said.
Dr. Jeff Ponsky sees the pros and cons of America's healthcare system every day, but this weekend he won't have to worry about insurance coverage or billing. He's a Medworks volunteer.
"Medworks is a bridge to nationalized healthcare it's a way of making sure our most needy get seen," said Dr. Jeff Ponsky of University Hospitals.
Medworks is a collaboration of Cleveland, Ohio's medical community. For two days they'll volunteer giving free healthcare to those who need it most.
"We can't wait for a national healthcare policy to suddenly come available tomorrow... it won't," Dr. Ponsky said.
Empty rooms on the fifth floor of the Walker building, co-owned by University Hospitals and Cleveland Clinic, will be filled with medical patients.
The gymnasium will turn into a vision clinic, and down the street chairs at the Case Western Reserve University Dental School is where Doctor Scott Alperin will be pulling bad teeth.
"Whether you work for one hospital chain or a competing hospital medical practices dental practices what have you they're all coming together with one common goal, to help the people that need it," Dr. Scott Alperin, a Medworks dental volunteer, said.
In two days volunteers signed up eleven hundred medical, three hundred vision and three hundred dental patients. Jean Sandor was one of them.
"I really appreciate the doctors who are giving their time to help people like myself," she said.
And those doctors are hoping they can do it again.
We're very hopeful that this will become a regular part of our community we'll get better at it and we'll be a leader for the country," Dr. Ponsky said.
This is the first time Medworks is testing their program.
If successful, doctors hope to bring the program to other cities across the country.
