At A Walk In Clinic Tampa Residents Can Get Basic Medical Treatment

By Christine Snyder


It is only natural that people want the best possible medical care when they sustain injuries or when the fall ill. Sadly, very few people can afford such medical help. The fees charged by hospitals, doctors and other medical specialists are totally out of reach of the vast majority of people unless they have medical insurance. The vast number of poor people does not have medical insurance and without the services of a walk in clinic Tampa patients will be deprived of any care.

In the United States there are more than eleven thousands of these clinics scattered across thousands of areas. They are not the result of any coordinated effort and they are not regulated in any way. In many cases, they are run by churches and charities that depend on donations. Many are owned by pharmacies and there are some local councils that also run clinics.

Because there is no coordination between the clinics, the services that they offer differ. Some of them will treat minor ailments and wounds while some will only deal with emergency cases. Others focus solely on the care of infants and pregnant women. One therefore has to know the scope of the treatment offered by a clinic before visiting one otherwise a lot of time can be wasted.

Despite the limited services offered by clinics they remain extremely popular. After all, what choice does one have when there is no money to pay a private doctor or hospital. Many patients to these clinics go there because they are not asked any questions about where they come from, whether they have citizenship or what their personal backgrounds are.

Clinics have many critics. They may admit that the clinics offer at least some help to the destitute and the poor, but they insist that the level of services offered by them is hopelessly inadequate and cannot even be described as primary health care. They criticize the fact that patients have to wait many hours in a queue only to have less than five minutes when they at last see an attendant.

Unfortunately, a very small minority of clinics can boast the services of a qualified doctor. Most of them are manned by health workers and nurses. While they do what they can, they are not qualified or trained to diagnose medical conditions and they certainly cannot prescribe medication. This results in a situation where only symptoms are treated instead of the underlying condition that causes the symptoms.

Detractors also say that all doctors and specialists rely heavily on the medical history of the patients that the see. Without knowing what medication the patient used in the past, whether he has allergies or latent conditions such as diabetes and hypertension it is often very difficult to make an informed and accurate diagnosis. Clinics do not keep medical histories of the patients that they treat.

They may be under resourced and they may only be able to provide very basic care, but these clinics do help a lot of people and they alleviate a lot of suffering. Their patients are normally destitute and have no other options. One hopes that primary health care will become a bigger priority in the future.




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