Financial aid provided to health center
BY CLARE MARIE CELANO
Staff Writer

The gift of free medical care continues to accommodate uninsured area residents at the Paul M. McGuire Family Health Care Center, Throckmorton Street, Freehold Borough.

Freehold Township officials have decided to lend financial support to help keep the center going and Freehold Borough officials were poised to do the same this week.

A resolution adopted on Oct. 24 by the Township Committee in Freehold Township states that the municipality will provide the family health center with $7,500 to help cover services rendered to patients between Oct. 1, 2006 and March 30, 2007.

According to the resolution, the services are to include health supervision for infants, preschool children and their parents, including physical, emotional, nutritional and cognitive development; primary health care services, maintaining a specialist referral policy to refer appropriate cases to the primary care services provided by CentraState Medical Center, referring elevated lead levels to the nurse educator for appropriate follow-up and providing visual screenings. In addition to providing nursing services for referrals and follow-up of reportable diseases, the resolution also asks for maintaining tuberculosis screenings. The clinic should also provide physical examinations and baseline laboratory testing, as well as treat chronic illnesses as feasible within the resources at the center.

The Borough Council in Freehold Borough was expected to consider a resolution at its meeting on Nov. 6 providing the same level of financial support to the health center for the same time period.

Margaret Jahn, health officer of the Freehold Area Health Department, said the payments by both towns to the McGuire health center will replace financial support that was previously provided to another public health agency which has since closed an office in Freehold.

Jahn said municipal health departments are mandated by the state to provide a certain level of public health care service for the uninsured and indigent.

She said that since the McGuire health center was already in operation and serving the borough and the township, officials believed the best use of the resources available was to help fund that health center.

Borough Administrator Joseph Bellina said, "We are confident that the Board of Health, through the McGuire health center, will be providing thorough health services for the uninsured."

According to the Rev. Ricky Pierce, chairman of I Beseech Thee Community Development Corp., which operates the facility, he and Joyce Jenkins, the health center's program coordinator, met with representatives of the Freehold Area Board of Health recently.

Pierce said Jenkins explained the services the center has been providing since January 2005. The board is comprised of officials from Freehold Township and Freehold Borough. As a result of that meeting, township officials decided to contribute funds to the center.

The health center, which operates out of a trailer in the parking lot of the New Beginnings Agape Christian Center, Throckmorton Street, Freehold Borough, was initially open on Friday from 6-9 p.m. The clinic is now open on Thursday (instead of Friday) from 6-9 p.m. and also has hours on most Tuesdays and Wednesdays, as well as hours for specialty clinics. The hope, according to Pierce, is to continue to increase the clinic's hours of operation.

The clinic's operators said they already need more space in order to accommodate the medical needs of the patients who made more than 600 visits last year.

Jenkins said patients come from Freehold Borough, Freehold Township and Lakewood. Some patients travel a longer distance to receive the free care, medications and referrals for specific medical problems that the center offers.

Patients are cared for by a volunteer staff of more than 20 people including doctors, nurses and administrative personnel.

The only paid staff person is the new medical director, Dr. Lookman Obejobi, who visits patients at the clinic on Thursday. Obejobi is on staff at Jersey Shore University Medical Center, Neptune.

According to Jenkins, the health center also has a pediatric clinic and a gynecological clinic.

Potential volunteers are invited to observe the operation and see if they are interested in joining the staff, Jenkins said.

The family health care center offers physicals, health maintenance, treatment of minor illnesses and health education/prevention, in addition to blood pressure, other health screenings and children's immunizations. Any individual may seek assistance at the clinic.