Free Dental and Vision Treatments in Midlands Area

Adults from the Midlands area who do not have proper health insurance and those who simply cannot afford medical services will be offered free medical, vision and dental treatments.

All these services will be offered during a special event called “SC Mission 2011: Midlands”.

The humanitarian event will take pace on August 5th and 6th and all the underserved and uninsured patients will be treated on a first come first served basis. The event will be held at the Carolina Coliseum.

Health professionals from all over the state will join forces to give something back to their community during the event. Hospital staff, non profit organizations and providers such as United Way of Midlands and the BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina will form partnership in order to help out those in need.

Other participants and important providers at the event include: Palmetto Health, Lexington Medical Center, S.C. Optometric Physicians Association, the University of South Carolina, DHEC and Fairfield Memorial Hospital.

Last year, a similar event has been held in Greenville, but this is the first time such an event is held in the Midlands area. The event will mainly serve patients of 17 years of age and older, since medical services and coverage for younger children are more easily available than those for adults.

According to Jenny Greenhalgh who is the medical team coordinator for the “SC Mission 2011: Midlands”, the goal of the event is practically to address those emergency issues of the uninsured and underinsured patients of the community who simply have not had access to a family doctor.

Unfortunately, the number of people who cannot afford even basic medical services is on a continuous rise. The community needs all the medical help that it can get, especially now in times of economic hardships.

Last year in Greenville for instance, at a similar event 1,200 patients have been provided with professional medical services worth of $550,000. Around 50% of those consulted and treated were unemployed people.

For this year’s event in Columbia, it is estimated that a similar number of patients will receive proper health care services for free.