SAN ANTONIO –
A South Side community in urgent need of a medical facility will be getting one soon.
The Indian Creek area, or ZIP code 78242, is listed as one of 10 areas in Bexar County at high risk for ongoing public health problems.
Fast Facts:
- District 4 Councilman Rey Saldana partnered with CentroMed, a nonprofit that provides medical, dental, behavioral health, social and nutritional services to economically disadvantaged, homeless and medically underserved communities.
- Saldana's goal is to build a facility that would provide health care assistance to families who don’t have insurance or can’t afford it.
- Based on a study done by CentroMed, the area consists of 36,000 residents with a median household income of $33,883.
- The area does not have a primary care provider within its boundaries.
- Of people in the area, 31 percent are uninsured, and 66 percent live at or below the 200 percent poverty line.
- Currently, construction is taking place on the primary care clinic and wellness center at 5501 Ray Ellison Drive.
- The project is estimated to cost $12 million, and $11 million has already been raised through private and public funds.
- The ribbon-cutting ceremony is expected at the end of July.
“What charged my excitement for this project was doing a ride-along with EMT and going to a home where a boy was convulsing on the floor from an epileptic seizure,” Saldana said. “The mother had no idea her son was even diagnosed with that until the EMTs told her, 'You have to find a clinic or somewhere to get him treated.' She was filled with question marks and scratched her head because she had no idea. With this facility, we will have access to health care for uninsured, people and people who are not insured enough.”
“You are going to have physicians and nurses working down here among the community, intermingling in an area that, for a long time, had been a drive-by community,” Saldana said.