Free Clinic is a Testament of Dedication to Serve the Sick and Uninsured
By Jawahar Malhotra
HOUSTON: The line forms at 6 am outside, even before the building doors open, come rain or shine; stifling heat or shivering cold, and without a place to sit. Some people bring their own foldable chairs, others simply sit on the floor or stand in the ragged queue that moves upstairs and continues the wait in the corridor.
When the nurse opens the door, the crowd maintains its place, taking up the seats in the tiny waiting room and lining up against the walls, the rest of them flowing over into the hallways. They give way as the tall, dark, bespectacled doctor in his white coat, stethoscope clutched in hand, slowly makes his way to the door and walks in with a smile and hello to the nurses, just as he has done for the past nine years. Dr. K. T. Shah, the Clinic Director since 2005, wastes no time, dropping his bag at the corner office and enters one of the two adjacent exam rooms.
For the next four and half hours – the clinic opens at 8:30 am and closes at 1 pm every Saturday – Dr. Shah, 77, is totally absorbed by the nearly 40 patients he will see that day with a feeling of exhilaration as he tries to diagnose and help them. “I really enjoy it; I can forget all my problems,” he says on this particular Saturday when we convened before the clinic started. “It is like going to the temple for me.” He is sometimes helped by Dr. Jay Raman and recently Dr. Pariyani and can call from a list of ten volunteer doctors if need be, but the disciplined and dedicated Dr. Shah, a retired gastroenterologist, is always there every Saturday.
And for the thousands of people who have been helped by the Indian Doctors Clinic, getting the totally free treatment has been a blessing that no other clinic in the Bayou City offers. “There are 25 charity clinics in Houston and 10 to 15 dental clinics,” noted Dr. Satish Jhingran, a retired radiologist and Director of the IDC, “but none are completely free like the IDC.”
The IDC began in March 1999 when a group of Indian doctors led by the husband and wife team of Drs. Suresh and Sunita Moonat felt the urge to provide free care to the people who were least able to afford it and were uninsured. They opened the doors of the clinic on DeMoss street, just north of Bellaire and east of the Southwest Freeway, in a medical building behind the fire station and offered free medical services. Ten years later, the IDC was forced to move when the building was found to contain asbestos, and it relocated to its present site at 6550 Mapleridge in Bellaire between Chimney Rock and Sage.
The clinic continues to see patients with chronic medical conditions, blood pressure, diabetes, cholesterol, skin problems and the like – but no emergencies – at no cost. Many repeat patients come for follow-ups and the clinic provides them with copies of their medical records so that they can go to another facility too, should the need arise.
“Thanks to the remarkable generosity of Dr. Lucky Chopra who owns Advanced Diagnostic Clinic which he opened in 2006, we have offered free radiology scans so far,” explained K.C. Mehta, the IDC Secretary and Treasurer. “But due to the new Obamacare law, the service will now be offered at a deep discounted rate of perhaps $50.”
The IDC also offers labwork, which is done completely free of cost, with the specimens collected on site and sent out for analysis. “Ever since we started, Memorial Southwest Hospital has offered free labwork,” explained Dr. Jhingran, “since they are a non-profit organization and are required to do some pro-bono work.”
The clinic is run with the assistance of three paid office staff – a nurse, lab technician and medical assistant, as well as two interpreters, one for Spanish and the other, surprisingly, for Malayalam for the many patients who are in the welding and pipe fitting business. The clinic does not ask for any documents or money and till 2006 used to give out free name brand medicines but has now resorted to writing prescriptions for generics which are only $4 at most pharmacies. All the clinic’s equipment is either donated or bought by donated funds.
“Even with expenses kept low, it costs an average of $40,000 a year to run the clinic,” said Mehta, “with rent being the largest component.” Most of the funds come from the Indian Doctors Association and the Indo American Charity Foundation, though in the past, two entertainment events – The Blue Mug and Udit Narayan – raised in excess of $100,000 and allowed the clinic to run for a few years. Earlier this year, Dr. Shah, on his own, decided to do a letter writing campaign to 1,600 people and was able to raise $20,000. Also this year, Ashok Garg, who is very active in Club 24 and the Rotary Club of Spring Branch and attended the Saturday meeting, said that both groups have pledged $5,000 of support.
Raising money for the clinic does not seem to be a problem, but getting volunteer doctors to commit one Saturday morning each week to take turns at working the clinic does. Dr. Raghu Athre, the President of the IDA lamented the lack of volunteers, especially young ones, adding that he has had tepid response from the younger generation of Indian physicians to participate. “They are second Genners and don’t have the same connection with our community,” said Athre, a second generation plastic surgeon himself.
It is this lack of volunteer physicians – preferably Internists – who are keeping the IDC from expanding its hours of operation from every Saturday to three days a week and preferably every day, since the demand for the Charity Clinic is certainly there, as is evident from the line of patients that come. The Board of the IDC is struggling with making transformative changes to tackle the needs of the future and exploring all options, including even levying a tiny fee for services.
But, for right now, the indefatigable Dr. Shah carries the weight of carrying for the patients in a service that brings him great satisfaction, even as the bunions on one of his feet cause him to move carefully and slowly. “I’ll keep doing this till I drop dead,” he said emphatically with a wide grin.