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Christ the Light Cathedral Center To Have Free Clinic - Tribune

A true service to a city that needs the help. But one has to ask how that will change the nature of life around the Lake? If the Cathedral is the center of a free clinic, will it draw more of a criminal element to the Lake Merritt area?

Oakland's new cathedral will have free clinic for uninsured
'Not only a center for the Catholic community, but really, the soul of the city'
By Barbara Grady, STAFF WRITER
Article Created: 03/08/2008 02:42:04 AM PST

OAKLAND — Hoping to help some of 166,000 people without health insurance in Alameda County, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland is planning to open a free health clinic in the new Christ the Light Cathedral Center under construction in downtown Oakland.
By the time it opens in late September or October, the Cathedral Center, at 21st and Harrison streets, will include a 1,700-square-foot health clinic staffed by a doctor and a nurse practitioner and drawing from a community of volunteer physicians, diocesan officials said. Services will be free to those without health insurance.
The clinic will be funded and operated by the Order of Malta, a Catholic fraternal organization with a 900-year history of caring for the sick. more

Comments

Becks said…
I think this will be a great service to the community and am unsure why you think it may bring a "criminal element" to the area. Are criminals the only ones in need of health care?
Zennie Abraham said…
That's a great point. I'm not agains the service, but one has to ask if there's a counterveiling action to this. If free medical systems are in place, it does -- without question -- change the nature of the demographics of people who come to the Lake area.

That written, there are many in the Lake area who can benefit from this, too.