Just When They’re Needed Most, Clinics for the Poor Face Drastic Cutbacks

One dentist on Dr. Jones’s staff, Jessica Williams, who is now performing only urgent care dental work, said the already high infection risk in her job has been compounded by the

unknowns of the coronavirus’s spread and the staff reductions on the dental team. “I have to put that fear aside,” Dr. Williams wrote in an email, describing two patients who came in recently with bad infections and dire pain.

“When I took out their abscessed, crumbling teeth, scooped out the pus and infected tissue, and said “It’s out,” they sighed, thanked God, and thanked me profusely. In that order. It’s just a reminder that those patients appreciate us, see the value in our work, our sacrifice. Reminds me of the job I signed up for and why.”

In Whatcom, County, Wash., which is served by Sea Mar Community Health Centers, based in Seattle, 10,696 people have filed for unemployment over the last two weeks, in a county with about 229,000 people.

Hard times, said Dr. Christine Hancock, a family practitioner at Sea Mar, will lead more economically struggling or uninsured patients to Sea Mar’s doors. “Patients basically don’t have anywhere to go except for a few community health centers in the county,” she said. “It’s just kind of the reality.”

Kirk Johnson reported from Seattle, and Abby Goodnough from Washington.