It gets mighty cold during the winter in Madison, Wisconsin, where 450 medical students at the University of Wisconsin volunteer their services at 6 MEDIC clinics around the city. Given the funding limitations and the other obligations of the volunteers, the system is only able to treat 1,300 patients over the course of a year. Typically, a clinic will be open for 3 hours, one day per week, so uninsured citizens often arrive early and wait outside for one of the coveted 12 spots on the limited schedule.
"For a while, they were coming as early as
6:30," said Claudia Bulla, a front desk coordinator and Spanish
translator, "but we told them to stop. It was so cold, and they had
their babies. We worried they would get sick just waiting."
On a busy Saturday, especially during the flu
season, coordinators say they have turned away as many as six
patients for the twelve slots. "It was shocking for me," said Jose
Delgado, who started as a front desk coordinator just recently.
"I'm from East Los Angeles, and you see poor people who need help
there, too. But the clinics there handle way more than a dozen
people. Some had things that were pretty bad, and they don't have
funds to go anywhere else. I knew they would end up waiting another
whole week."
Another clinic organization, Access Community Health Centers, also provides services for the uninsured, but they, too, find themselve unable to come close to meeting the need.
"The need is greater than our capacity," said
Tammy Quall, development director for Access. There were no
statistics available for how many requests for medical appointments
are turned away every day, but Quall said that at last count the
clinic received 60 more calls a day for dental appointments than it
could handle. (Since then, Quall said, the clinic has improved the
backlog.) A reporter calling to make an appointment for a medical
checkup recently was told to call back in two weeks. When she asked
what would happen then, she was informed she would probably just
have to call back again in another two weeks.