May 13, 2023
Source/IMAGE LICENSED FROM INGRAM IMAGE
The city of Philadelphia announced it would add to city-run health centers in the Lower Northeast. The first will be located at the Frankford Transportation Center, and the second to be determined at a later date.
Philadelphia will bolster its access to health care with two new city-run health centers in the lower Northeast. The first center will be at the Frankford Transportation Center, and a second facility will be announced at a future date.
The Frankford health care center will include primary care services for adults and children, women's health services, a lab, and a pharmacy.
The lower Northeast section of the city was identified as an area that lacked adequate access to primary healthcare services in a 2018 report from the health department. Some neighborhoods in the Northeast had a shortage of primary care physicians. Northeast had the lowest rate of community health center access in the city, based on that 2018 report.
"These projects are part of the city's commitment to its residents. We know that for far too long, residents of this part of the city have struggled to get access to primary care. Today, we are taking the first step to change that reality," Managing Director Tumar Alexander said.
Based on data from the U.S. Census, areas of the Northeast have seen the most significant rises in poverty and also saw the biggest rise in growth in the share of Black, Hispanic, and Asian residents.
The Census Bureau determines poverty by the size of a family and the number of children. It does not adjust its scale based on whether or not a family receives government aid.
"We cannot continue to allow the kind of waste of human potential that happens when people are shut out of access to healthcare, as happens too often in our city despite its world-class medical facilities," Health Commissioner Cheryl Bettigole said. "Particularly for immigrants, our healthcare system can be an impenetrable wall rather than a source of help. I am profoundly grateful that this administration recognizes the importance of this access and that as part of our identity as a sanctuary city, we will be ensuring that the residents of such a diverse, international part of our city have access to high-quality, affordable care."
Philadelphia has an online database to help residents find the city's closest free and low-cost primary care. The database includes primary care physicians that take Medicare and Medicaid and places for people without insurance.
Groundbreaking on the Frankford healthcare center could start by the summer 2024.
