Report #3 from BARHC Caravan in New Orleans

The clinic is located on 1401 Teche St, and our phone is 504-361-9659.

The clinic is coming together amazingly well. We've had many drop-offs of medications, herbs, and other first aid/healing supplies from folks all over the country, including Cindy Sheehan, who came by yesterday with her colorful peace caravan. We have at least five working glucometers, plenty of BP cuffs (though we could use more to hand out to residents in the community), a million gloves, bandages, and a medicinal formulary that is now quite comprehensive, including insulin and many other common and not so common prescription drugs. In short, we are not lacking basic medical and first-aid supplies. We have several experienced massage therapists, an acupuncturist, and multiple herbalists on site, who've been kept very busy. We have a lot of other basic supplies for folks in the communty, including ensure, diapers, flashlights--you name it--and folks have been coming by to pick things up throughout the day.

We're taking every opportunity to incorporate community members into the working of the clinic, offering lessons on taking blood pressure, chart organization, and multiple other clinic tasks, and we're hoping to expand this work as more displaced residents return the neighborhood, which still remains quite empty. We want to start free classes on health care and healing, and maybe other topics as well. Malik [Rahim] has been totally inspirational in his leadership and experience, guiding us in outreach to other parts of the West Bank section of New Orleans, and hopefully soon the East Bank, where we hope to establish other satellite clinics.

We have an active home outreach program going on, involving EMT bicycle patrols, in which we visit people who can't make it into the clinic, and for folks who have medication needs that we can't provide in the clinic, we've been making runs to the emergency pharmacies to procure the needed supplies. We've been having basic planning meetings with the whole Common Ground collective in the morning, and clinic staff meetings in the evening, and the whole process of cooperation and brainstorming has been about the most rewarding of any action medical process that I've been a part of.

What remains uncertain is how the clinic will be positioned with other facets of the public health system when they start working again, which I imagine will be over the next week or two. Our collective hope is that this clinic, Common Ground, will become a sustainable clinic, setting a beautiful example for grass-roots organizing, mutual aid, and self-sufficiency, and that it will also provide a case for activists to develop solidarity skills with the people of New Orleans and beyond who have been so marginalized by the deplorable U.S. health care system, and the whole grand corporate political structure.

What this clinic is demonstrating is that it is possible for a fully functioning health care center to rise out of the ashes of a disaster, fueled by the energy and creativity of compassionate activists in solidarity with spirited compassionate community members. We've witnessed the utter failure of government to respond to the needs of people at a time of natural tragedy, institutionalized and individual racism at its worse, as whites throughout New Orleans received preferential and early disaster response, leaving people of color behind to fend for themselves in the early days of the deluge.

Of the delayed government response, we've witnessed an awfully militarized operation replete with military helicopter fly-bys, troops in combat fatigues, and more guns than an NRA convention. If you are sick, injured, and if you lost your home, would you rather go to a military relief center surrounded by troops packing M4s and M16s, or would you rather go to a friendly community clinic that prohibits all guns from its premises and that is run by local community members who know about the needs of local folks?

This clinic means a lot to all of us--especially to the people of Algiers. I hope its meaning will be respected by members of the established public health system, and that it can survive in tandem with other health clinics and public health programs when they start working again. We've already initiated outreach to the Department of Health and Healing Services, and invited them to come by and see what a grass-roots mutual aid collective can accomplish!

I wanted to end this post with some important information for clinicians coming down to help. As you all know, the Governor of Louisiana issued an emergency order that lifted credentialing requirements for out of state MDs, enabling physicians with active medical licenses and DEA numbers to come into the state and provide emergency medical support. All this is evolving. Currently now all physicians need to check in with health department officials in Baton Rouge, and to present credentialing paper work in person. The number there is 1-225-763-5766, or 225-763-5770. I went through this process myself, so if anyone has questions, they can call me at: 415-702-5872.

Finally, the emergency order was only arranged up to Sept 28. It is entirely unclear if the order will be continued after then, so out-of-state MDs will have to check in at those numbers. I do not know if the emergency order applies to [physician assistants] and/or [nurse practitioners], so please call that number to ask these questions. We do, however, need more MDs at the clinic. I return to SF on Monday, and we need to have MDs in place after I leave to continue offering prescription meds.