The Cherry Hill Free Clinic will celebrate its fifth year anniversary of providing free health-care for uninsured people in South Jersey and the rest of the state on June 28 from 5:30 to 8 p.m. at Gracious Center of Learning and Enrichment Activities Complex at 5 Esterbrook Lane Cherry Hill, behind the clinic.
Details will be announced at https://CHFC.us/5year. Tickets are $50 and proceeds will go directly to supporting patient care.
The idea for the nonprofit began in 2015, when township resident Dr. Jubril Oyeyemi was working as an ER internist. It dawned on him how many people had no access to health care because they lacked insurance. Minor health issues ignored or left untreated grew into larger issues that left patients with large medical bills.
The clinic opened two years later, in 2017.
“We’re a typical family doctor’s office, so we’re seeing folks with chronic medical conditions, diabetes (and) cholesterol, but also seeing patients with acute problems, like if they twisted their ankle or if they have a rash,” said Dr. Farah Roomi, a Moorestown resident and assistant medical director at the clinic.
Despite its name, the clinic is not government funded – or affiliated with Cherry Hill – and relies on a combination of grants, corporate sponsorships, fundraising events, and individual donors.
When it first opened, the clinic operated twice a month and had six primary-care providers. Today, its 40 physicians include specialists like mental-health professionals, physical therapists and nutritionists who volunteer their time to keep the clinic open Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and to answer calls until 6 p.m.
“We’re 120 strong with current volunteers, of which a third are the clinicians who provide the direct care,” said Oyeyemi. “ … These are people who have worked weekday jobs and donate a day on the weekend to volunteer their skills.”
In addition to more specialists, the clinic has more specialized equipment to serve a wider range of issues.
“ … To be useful, it needs all these other tools for the physician to accurately solve the problem,” explained Mostafa Eldasher, the clinic’s chief missions officer and a Maple Shade resident, of the clinic.
The facility is partnered with a number of hospitals and other nonprofits, community programs and pharmacies to provide lab work and specialized health screenings like vision and dental.
In the past five years, the clinic has served more than 5,000 patients. In the next few months, it hopes to also offer gynecological services through Virtua Hospital’s residency program for that specialty. In the next five years, Oyeyemi wants to grow the facility with more locations, services and volunteers.
“The data we’ve pulled is that 350,000 of our immediate neighbors – in Camden, Burlington and Gloucester counties – are uninsured,” he said. “We’re only barely scratching the surface of that with 5,000 people in the last five years.
“We know there’s lots of work to be done, and we need all the support (and) donations to really make sure that no one around us is suffering from lack of access to care,” Oyeyemi added.
The clinic seeks physicians, nursing practitioners and physician assistants. To learn more about the clinic, visit https://www.cherryhillfreeclinic.org/.
