Neighborhood Healthcare Launches $3M Fundraising Campaign

Neighborhood Healthcare kicked off a fundraising campaign Tuesday to build a local clinic.

The nonprofit organization hopes to raise $3 million to build a clinic for residents living in Poway and surrounding communities.

“Our city is very pleased, and I’m very pleased, that we will have a Neighborhood Healthcare clinic in the community,” said Councilman Dave Grosch when he welcomed attendees to the gathering, which took place at the Poway Library Community Room. “It’s been needed for a long, long time.”

. Grosch and other speakers thanked Poway residents Alan and Debbie Gold, who donated money to purchase the land.

“We hope all the citizens of Poway and the surrounding communities will be able to rely on this clinic for many generations to come,” said Alan Gold, who stood next to his brother and sister as he addressed the crowd. The clinic will be named in honor of their parents, Martin and Delia Gold.

Palomar Pomerado Health Board Member Jerry Kaufman said a clinic would benefit other nearby medical facilities and help alleviate waiting times.

“I appreciate what they have done in the communities that they’re in by providing wellness programs, by providing health programs that are really benefiting the people that come in there,” Kaufman said.

At the end of the meeting, several attendees stood up and shared why they believe the clinic is needed in Poway.

Public health nurse Liz Inglis said she has worked with many patients who don’t have transportation but have to be referred to clinics in Escondido.

“They seem to be the forgotten or unseen people,” Inglis said.

Veronica Flores, a Poway Unified School District counselor and Caring Connections Center co-coordinator said the resource center she works for also refers hundreds of families in need of medical and behavioral health care to Neighborhood Healthcare clinics in Escondido.

Head Start Dietitian Helen Jacobsen said some of the families the program serves travel as far as Tijuana to obtain the health care services they need.

“I am just so thrilled that we are here at this point and actually going to have the clinic,” Jacobsen said. “It is very, very much needed.”

The nonprofit hopes the clinic will be open in 2013-14, said Neighborhood Healthcare CEO Tracy Ream.

“The sooner we get going on fundraising, the better off we are,” she said.

The proposed clinic will have 15 exam rooms and a couple group visit rooms, Ream said. The nonprofit expects the clinic will serve about 7,500 people in Poway and surrounding communities, or have 22,000 visits each year, she added.

Founded in 1969, Neighborhood Healthcare currently has 10 centers located throughout San Diego and Riverside counties that serve low-income patients of all ages. Patients pay for treatment based on a sliding scale.

“It will be for anyone who needs health care,” Grosch said. “I think having a clinic here is going to be really great. I personally believe that access to health care is not a privilege; it’s a right. Everybody should have access.”