King City, CA Medical Clinic Still Vacant After A Year (Clinica de Salud del Valle de Salinas)
by Richard Kuehn on 08/27/12
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Non-Profit Serving Carmel, Carmel Valley, Gonzalez, Greenfield, King City,
Marina, Monterey, Pacific Grove, Pebble Beach, Salinas, Seaside And Soledad
California
King City has gone through quite a bit of
political turmoil over the past year and, unfortunately, residents are getting
the short end of the stick on a number of fronts. A brand new clinic was completed on the east side of town more
than a year ago but Clinica de Salud del Valle de Salinas remains
unoccupied. The clinic received a $2.3
million stimulus grant as part of a $600 million package of recovery grants
issued via the Department of Health and Human Services. These grants were supposed to fund things
which would fuel job growth and serve the needy, and King City residents
definitely need both. The CEO of the
clinic has not answered multiple phone calls and emails from the Monterey
Herald over the last two weeks so why the clinic hasn't opened remains a
mystery. It had a grand opening
celebration back in May, but so far hasn't served any clients. Clinica de Salud has received $5.24 million
in grants, some of which have gone to other clinics it owns. The heartbreak of these poor residents, many
of them elderly, is seen every day by staff at Alliance Home Health and Family
inHome Caregiving. Alliance Home Health
provides in-home health care. Although
it's covered by Medicare and Medi-Cal in some instances, it's normally for a
short visit and that's sometimes not enough.
Family inHome Caregiving provides private duty caregivers which provide
non-medical in home care, but it's only covered by long term care insurance
(LTC) which most people don't have.
Let's hope whatever issues this clinic is having are
solved quickly, there are many that could use the help.
Please note that this blog reflects my
personal opinion and may or may not reflect the opinion of HandsTo Help Seniors
and the individual members comprising the Board of Governors.
