The trucks are loaded and volunteers are on their way from the University of Virginia Medical Center to Wise County, Virginia for a three-day Remote Area Medical (RAM) Clinic. The clinic offers medical care to those in need.
Volunteers from UVA Medical Center joined other professionals Wednesday morning as they packed up supplies and geared up for three days of offering medical, dental and eye care for patients in need in southwest Virginia. The caravan of two trucks worth of equipment and the first round of volunteers headed to Wise County, Wednesday.
The clinic starts there Friday morning at 6 a.m. and wraps up at noon on Sunday. Services range from mammograms to vision and hearing screenings. Plus there will be a pharmacy set up on site. In addition, specialists will be available for telemedicine conferences. For many patients, this is the only specialty medical care they will get all year.
RAM clinic volunteer Audrey Snyder said, "They have great primary care in the area, but it's this specialty care - dental and vision - that patients need that they are not able to access if they don't have insurance."
The 250 UVA volunteers expect to see over 1,000 patients during the clinic.
When patients get the immediate care they need at the clinic, they will meet with a social worker before they leave. That will help them get a plan together to manage their condition and get connected with important resources in their community.
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