The Alliance Clinic is expanding its services to San Diego's refugee population. It will now include surgery. KPBS Radio's Tom Fudge explains.
Grant funding has allowed the clinic on El Cajon Boulevard to buy a device that performs simple surgeries with electric waves. Primary care doctors can now do procedures, ra nging from removing lesions to vasectomies, without seeking referrals to specialists. Clinic administrators say this will save precious time and money. The clinic was founded by the Alliance for African Assistance to provide care for San Diego's refugee population. CEO Walter Lam says the clinic has also provided training to local doctors who will practice in third world countries.
"There are certain problem we have never even heard of here like river blindness. These are some of the diseases we are seeing people coming here with," says Lam.
The Alliance Clinic now serves a wide range of refugees, including a growing number of Iraqis. Tom Fudge, KPBS News.
