Patients of the City’s Public Health Centers and health care advocates will attend City Council on Thursday, June 13th and urge Council to pass zoning legislation that will allow construction of a new City Health Center at the Friends Hospital Campus on Roosevelt Boulevard.

There is only one public health center in the entire Northeast, while the rest of the city has 46 health centers. The Northeast Health Center on Cottman Ave, Health Center 10, is extremely overcrowded, with new patients waiting up to a year for their first appointment. The Lower Northeast has been identified by the Penn Institute for Health Economics as an area of low access for primary care providers and is the only section of the city with such low access without a City Health Center.

The City’s Health Department identified the need nearly 15 years ago and undertook a rigorous review process to select the site of the Center.

“Patients can’t wait any longer,” said Carol Rogers, Vice Chair of the Board of the City Health Centers and a long time health care activist. “The Health Department has gone through a years long process. It’s time to move ahead now.”

Over the last few months, Councilmember Quetcy Lozada held a series of community meetings where residents showed strong support for the project. Over 1,300 patients and residents of the Northeast also sent in postcards to Council or signed a petition supporting the Center’s construction.

Last month Councilmember Lozada introduced zoning legislation that will allow for construction of the Center. Council’s Rules Committee favorably reported the legislation last week and it will come up for final passage on Thursday.

“I’ve been a patient at Health Center 10 since the early 80s and can’t recommend them enough,” said Marlyn Bradshaw, who serves as a patient representative on Health Center 10’s Advisory Committee. “They provide a full array of services and excellent care. But the wait times have gotten worse and worse as the need in the area has increased. We need the new Health Center to be built so that people aren’t waiting a year for a first appointment.”

The Lower Northeast has undergone major demographic changes in the past 20 years with the population now 38% Black and 24% Hispanic, while poverty levels have increased by 200% to 420% in areas such as Mayfair, Oxford Circle, Lawncrest and Rhawnhurst.

The new Health Center will provide comprehensive primary care for adults and children, family planning, dental care, mammography, physical therapy, and numerous other services. Health Centers have interpreters available in different languages, provide very low-cost care, and help patients sign up for free health coverage if they qualify.

For more information, contact Adam Goldman of Philadelphia Unemployment Project at 267-320-7861