YORKTOWN, Va. — Free and charitable clinics are on the front lines during the coronavirus outbreak, keeping people well and out of hospital emergency departments.
"If they go without any kind of health care, then they could get worse and then lose their job," said Larry Trumbore, Executive Director of Lackey Clinic. The faith-based nonprofit in Yorktown serves low-income and uninsured adults.
The clinic is open amid the crisis and has seen a substantial uptick in patient enrollment since the pandemic began.
"More people are not working, so they say, 'Let me take care of this issue,'" said Trumbore. "We have some people that lost jobs, and so now they've become uninsured."
Lackey Clinic has made changes in response to COVID-19, including running a walk-up pharmacy window, providing groceries for people in need, and serving hundreds of patient visits through telehealth programs.
"Our patients are chronically sick, and so we see them a lot more often, especially if they're diabetic or have...high blood pressure," said Trumbore. "And so, we have that connection. We're more [like] family."
With upcoming fundraisers canceled, the clinic is asking for your financial help to continue providing critical health care and counseling to medically disadvantaged people on the Peninsula.
"We take resources from the community, whether it's a dollar amount or it's a volunteer or it's a doctor or a nurse that comes to work with us, and we turn that into almost $20 million dollars worth of service every year," said Trumbore. "It's a wonderful thing."
For more information about Lackey Clinic, click here. You can also check out the nonprofit on Facebook. To learn more about how you can help Lackey Clinic, click here.