Loudoun Free Clinic Needs Volunteer Doctors

LOUDOUN, Va. (WUSA) --- Loudoun County Free Clinic provides exams, seasonal flu shots, and medicine for low-income, uninsured adults. The clinic operates on state and private donations, and the services of volunteer nurse practitioners and nursing students.

"The attention is good," says patient Maria Naranjo.

Still, the clinic faces a shortage of volunteer doctors who can donate a few hours.

Loudoun County Health Department estimates 40,000 residents are uninsured. Clinic director Jennifer Montgomery says the clinic sees more patients who have lost their jobs or faced foreclosures in this economy.

"You can't do anything if you don't have the doctors to help write the prescriptions," says volunteer practical nurse Karen Kahr.

And it's the patients with chronic illnesses like diabetes who depend on the free medicine.

The director says the poor and the sick should have better options via health care reform.

"I think we all feel like if there was something in place that would put us out of business, that would be great, because we are really the safety net for people who have nothing else."

The clinic also welcomes more volunteer language interpreters (Farsi, Spanish) and nutritionists.