Health Department a needed provider
The Hamilton County Project Access Community Health Partnership is deeply concerned about potentially significant funding cuts to the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Health Department. The Health Department and its health clinics, including the Homeless Health Center, have been an integral part of Project Access since we began providing specialty health care services to uninsured residents in 2004.
To date, Project Access has coordinated more than $72 million in donated health care services to low-income uninsured residents of Hamilton County. Our 18-member consortium includes health centers and clinics, hospital systems, rehabilitation facilities and more than 600 volunteer physicians.
Every week we work with patients who come to us from the Health Department health clinics. Project Access coordinates specialty care for these uninsured patients. Many are the working poor who don’t have health insurance and who cannot afford the costs of basic health care. Many won’t be able to continue working if they lose access to the basic primary care services offered at the Health Department clinics. The safety net primary care centers in Hamilton County are already at capacity, and it is very unlikely they could absorb these uninsured patients if these services are cut.
Equally important, the Health Department provides critical preventive care services, including immunization, screening and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases, treatment of other communicable diseases and women’s health services. The department also identifies and addresses health hazards in the community.
We urge you to protect and preserve these important functions which safeguard and improve the health of our citizens and contribute the vitality of our county.