UCLA volunteers provide free health care at downtown L.A. mega clinic

With the strongly held belief that access to health care should be available to everyone — not just the insured — nearly 200 volunteers from UCLA joined an effort to provide free services to more than 2,000 people at a three-day Care Harbor community clinic.“Los Angeles is still one of the leading areas of people without insurance or access to care and it’s a problem for the community,” said Dr. Patrick Dowling, professor and chair of the  UCLA Department of Family Medicine, who led the UCLA volunteer contingent at Care Harbor ’s seventh health care mega clinic. “I’m involved with this because I know there’s an unmet need. I want to demonstrate to our medical students we have a responsibility to be down here.”Care Harbor is a charity that provides free medical, dental and vision care to the underinsured and underserved.   The clinic drew 2,047 professionals and students to offer their clinical expertise. Those volunteers included 198 people from UCLA Health, the  UCLA School of Dentistry, the  UCLA Stein Eye Institute and the UCLA School of Nursing. There were 2,151 people who sought services at the clinic, which was held at the Reef Event Center in downtown Los Angeles from Nov. 17 –19.Dr. Karla Gonzalez, a third-year family medicine resident at UCLA, grew up near downtown Los Angeles in Boyle Heights. She had previously participated in the Care Harbor event when she was a medical student and, before that, as an interpreter.“I’ve always beli...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news