Kansas City, Kansas patients protest closing clinic
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — About 1,300 Kansas City, Kansas medical patients are trying to figure out where they’ll go to the doctor after the Duchesne Clinic on Tauromee Avenue closes next week.
The announcement caught many patients and workers by surprise in mid-April, and causes unique challenges for the nearly entirely uninsured population and large Hispanic population that relies on the clinic’s affordable care.
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“As soon as I received the letter, I was really saddened with it because it’s like, where am I going to go now,” said patient Monica Velasco.
She and her mother are uninsured and rely on the clinic for donor-supported care and very affordable prescription medication.
“They had their community that would even pay for 75% of [medical bills] so we were left with just 25 percent, and it was payment plans,” Velasco said.
Intermountain Health is closing Duchesne Clinic and sent FOX4 this statement:
The difficult decision has been made to close the Duchesne Clinic in Kansas City, Kansas, effective on June 1, 2024.
This decision was not made lightly and only after comprehensive analysis of the clinic’s long-term sustainability and viability. Our providers and caregivers at Duchesne are working closely with patients to find new care at appropriate clinics in the community.
We appreciate the dedication of our caregivers and volunteers. Our human resources team, leadership at Duchesne, and the community are working closely together with our caregivers to explore career transitions.
The main goal with this work is to ensure our patients and caregivers in northeastern Kansas have the support that they need to transition successfully. We are evaluating opportunities to secure additional financial resources to support the Wyandotte County community.
But, some of the patients protesting Thursday point out the process to get approved to get care at the new clinics they’re being transferred to takes time and the prices will likely be higher than the heavily donor-supported care at Duchesne.
“There are a lot of clinics out there but they charge a lot of money it’s not really as affordable as here,” Velasco said.
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FOX4 spoke with Volunteer and Donor Greg Shondell who tells us he’s been sending letters to elected officials in KCK pleading with them to compel Intermountain Health to commit to a better transition. A press release from Intermountain says it donated $4.2 million to clinics in other communities to help absorb patients affected by clinic closures there.
Shondell points out that so such commitment has been made for Wyandotte County so far.
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