(Host) Two clinics in Rutland are teaming up to improve dental health in the region.
The collaboration is between Community Health Centers and Park Street HealthShare.
Park Street provides free medical and dental care to the uninsured and has an all-volunteer staff.
Community Health Centers is a federally qualified health center and needs to begin offering dental care.
So Community Health is paying to install equipment and to improve space that it’s renting along with Park Street.
The partnership means Park Street will expand from one dental chair to three.
Senator Bernie Sanders says he believes this is the first joint venture between a free clinic and a federally qualified health clinic.
(Sanders) “By coming together I think they’re going to be able to provide good quality care to a lot of people who today in the Rutland area just don’t have that access.”
(Host) Sanders says the new service will be a boon to people with too little insurance or none at all.
(Sanders) “In my view, one of the most kind of hidden health care crises in the state of Vermont is the lack of dental access for many, many people. And this clinic will go a long way in opening its doors to people who don’t have a lot of money, who are having dental problems, get the care they need. It’s an innovative approach and I think it’s going to fill a real need.”
(Host) The new dental clinic is on Grove Street and it will begin seeing patients on Monday.