One of two Anchorage health clinics that treat the poor and uninsured is closing.
Citing budget limitations and a shortage of doctors and dentists, the Anchorage Neighborhood Health Center said today that it will close its Mountain View clinic.
Mountain View patients and staff will transfer to the Fairview clinic over the next two or three months, executive director Joan Fisher said in a written statement.
The decision to consolidate two clinics into one is a letdown for Mountain View patients, who generally don't wait long when they need to see a doctor.
"I called on a Monday and had an appointment (the same day)," Greg Rochon, a 65-year-old Medicare patient, said of his first visit to the clinic. "Try that with your doc."
At the Fairview clinic, new patients generally wait two to four weeks for an appointment, a staff member said.
The ANHC clinics are the only places in Anchorage where the uninsured pay on a sliding scale depending on their income, marketing director Jon Zasada said. Half of the 12,300 annual patients don't have insurance.
Find Beth Bragg online at adn.com/contact/bbragg or call 257-4309.
By BETH BRAGG
bbragg@adn.com