For a working parent living in the Linton Oaks neighborhood in Southwest Gainesville, taking a child to the doctor used to mean missing an entire day of work.
Jenn Petion, director of community and government relations for Partnership for Strong Families, which operates the Southwest Advocacy Group Family Resource Center in the neighborhood, said residents could spend hours on a city bus to get to the nearest health care provider.
A new health clinic aims to solve this problem.
The Southwest Health Clinic, located across from the SWAG Center at 807 SW 64th Terrace, is bringing permanent medical care to Linton Oaks and surrounding neighborhoods starting Monday.
The clinic will focus on disease prevention, women and children’s health, and dental services, said Dorothy Thomas, special projects and fundraising chair for SWAG.
“This means that conditions that would’ve otherwise gone untreated, now they can actually receive routine health care,” Petion said.
The county owns the building, the Alachua County Health Department will run the facility and SWAG will hold an advisory role.
The clinic is the third step in a series of initiatives by the group to support residents of seven low-income neighborhoods making up the area between Southwest 20th Avenue and Interstate 75. It is joining the already established SWAG Family Resource Center and a children’s playground in Linton Oaks.
A temporary mobile clinic has been operating from a parking lot twice a week while the permanent building was renovated. The clinic offered sexually transmitted disease testing, family planning and primary care from the back of an emergency medical trailer every Tuesday and Thursday.
“It has been at full capacity the whole time it was operating,” Thomas said. “We expect the clinic will be even more well received.”
Both paid and volunteer staff from the county’s health department will operate the clinic. Renovations began in October. The finished product will house five doctor exam rooms and four dental exam rooms. It will be open five days a week.
A grand opening celebration will be held at 11 a.m. Monday.
As one project is completed, another is in the works.
Thomas said SWAG is working on an early learning center for children under the age of 6 to help prepare them for kindergarten.
[A version of this story ran on page 3 on 3/11/2015 under the headline “Health clinic to open in SW GNV”]
