By Emmanuel T. Erediano
Variety News Staff

THE Department of Public Health is to launch a mobile health clinic that will reach out to the people in Saipan villages in need of medical care, according to Secretary Joseph Kevin Villagomez.
He said the mobile clinic will have medical equipment and staff, and will cater to chronically ill people who find it inconvenient to come to the hospital or those who have transportation problems.
The clinic will offer dental care, immunization, pulmonary health care and treatment of diabetes.
Villagomez said they are communicating with vendors for the procurement of a vehicle, which can be either a van or a mini-bus.
“The mobile health clinic has always been a project we wanted to undertake for the people in the villages,” he said.
There are chronically ill patients who “find it inconvenient to come to the hospital or choose not to come to the hospital at all because they don’t have the transportation to get there,” Villagomez said.
A mobile clinic will help improve the community’s quality of life, he added.
“It will be our way of getting services out to the community and removing obstacles to getting to the hospital for medical care. It’s a project that we all feel will go a long way to improve the quality of care, and quality of life for those who are sick,” he said.
People in the villages, he said, will be informed prior to the day the mobile clinic is going to their neighborhood.
Medical records will be on hand so the clinic staff members will know exactly what medical conditions they are dealing with..
“We’ve seen it work in other communities and we think it’s going to work right here,” Villagomez said.