PANAMA CITY — It’s a clinic — on wheels.
A newly-built mobile clinic has hit the roads on the beach and there are plans to also serve rural areas that are inconveniently far from Florida Department of Health in Bay County on Eleventh Street. The clinic is contained in an RV and features two exam rooms.
“Based on a survey of our clinic last year, about a third of our patients are coming across the (Hathaway) bridge,” said health department administrator Doug Kent. “So, we’re hoping that we’ll be able to deal with that group of people across the bridge.”
Access to care is an issue that needs to be addressed, according to the Bay County Health Task Force, comprised of health care and education officials and members of the community, including the health department.
“It’s a long ways and a lot of people work everyday,” Kent said. “Sometimes it’ll be a lot easier to take off for an hour than it would to take of three or four hours.”
When parked in Youngstown, the clinic would allow people to have immediate access to care, Kent said. He said county officials also have raised concern about residents in the Fountain area. The community has no hospitals or health clinics.
The clinic also will assist patients during emergencies at the emergency shelter at Deane Bozeman School.
“Transportation is a problem,” Kent added. “We look forward to the outreach we can do.”
The clinic often is parked at Gulf Beach Baptist Church, 10620 Hutchison Blvd., and will service the beach only, for the time being, Kent said. Hours of operations for the mobile medical unit have yet to be established.
Services include: Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program, immunizations, chronic disease screenings and management, HIV and Hepatitis testing.
The roughly $300,000 medical RV was built specifically for the health department and was funded with a community access grant.