From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to cover? Let us know! A West Philadelphia health clinic that became a model for collaborations between academic health systems and community organizations has closed. But care providers who worked there say the lessons learned during six years of treating patients in an underserved community will stay.
In 2018, the Islamic Circle of North America, a national Muslim nonprofit, opened a free clinic in Northeast Philadelphia to provide care for the city’s growing refugee and immigrant population. It was called the SHAMS clinic, which stands for “Social Health and Medical Services,” and is also the Arabic word for “sun.” At first, the clinic was open every two weeks, and later expanded to running twice a week to see six to eight patients each week.
It also moved to a location in West Philadelphia to accommodate a growing patient population and more recent refugees and immigrants settling in that part of the city. For years, Noor Shaik has volunteered there, starting when she was a medical student at Thomas Jefferson University. She said the clinic served mostly people who go back and forth between the United States and their home countries, mostly from North Africa and South Asia.
“Most people had already been in the States for several years, and were ...
people who go back and forth often between their home country and the United States, and that would lead to some fractured .
