- November 17, 2024
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Flagler County’s Free Clinic is expanding its location and offering new services, including dental care, as it comes up on its 10-year anniversary,
“The 10-year anniversary is a significant milestone for an organization that started with just a handful of volunteers and now sees 2,000 patients a year, staffed by doctors and nurses volunteering their time,” Flagler County Free Clinic board member and event planner Elizabeth Robinson said. “It is an exciting period of growth for the clinic.”
The clinic, which serves people who are uninsured, now has about 50 medical volunteers, including doctors, nurses, physicians’ aides and others. It is expanding in the same building it uses now, at 700 State Road 100 in Bunnell, and the change will roughly double the clinic’s space, said Terri Belletto, who became the clinic’s first executive director seven weeks ago.
“Our new location is a proper doctor’s office setup,” she said, with eight private exam rooms. “We are expanding our women’s healthcare … right now have one gynecologist, and we’ll be adding a second.”
The clinic has two dental chairs, and plans to staff them this December and ultimately expand to four, Robinson said. “The need for dental care is huge in this community,” she said.
Belletto said the clinic also plans to expand its hours — now it’s open the first, second, third and fourth Thursdays of the month to see 10-15 patients who have appointments, and the first and third Saturday of the month to see 50 walk-in patients starting at 8 a.m. — to see more patients, and also plans to host community health-related events such as healthy living classes.
The free clinic is also looking for non-medical volunteers, Belletto said, “for the administrative side of things, and to develop some fundraising capacity,” and could use about 30.
The clinic will celebrate its anniversary at 6-8 p.m. Dec. 3 at Chophouse 101 at 101 Palm Harbor Parkway with live music, appetizers and drinks and a health and beauty silent auction. The event’s $15 admission fee will fund medical care. For more information or to volunteer for the clinic, call 437-3091.
