By Rebecca Heath and Tori Duym
Members of the Trenton community gathered in April to celebrate the grand unveiling of Medina Health Center’s community clinic, a primary care facility located in the heart of the city that will offer free healthcare to underserved communities.
Several speakers, including founder and chairman Sajid Syed and Trenton Mayor Reed Gusciora, took the stage to share their appreciation for the support the clinic has received, and express their excitement for the journey ahead.
While addressing the crowd, Syed explained that this concept has been a vision of his for a long time, and said that he is “blessed to have been given this opportunity to serve [his] community.”
Through partnerships with providers, many of whom will serve as volunteers, the clinic will aim to dismantle barriers to equitable healthcare access for the immigrant and homeless populations in Mercer County, according to Gusciora.
“It’s going to have a major impact because we have many people that do not have insurance,” he told The Streetlight. “We have a lot of migrants that are coming in here, and there is really a huge underserved community…That’s why you have doctors who are donating their time to come, and to make sure that that void is filled.”
Although there are medical facilities that are slightly more accessible for those who do not have the means to afford expensive primary care, finding specialist providers that offer affordable care is extremely rare.
“That’s what’s different about this,” said Nashon Hornsby, Assistant Commissioner for the New Jersey Department of Health. “They pull together specialists to meet the needs of those who are uninsured and underinsured.”
“It’s a wonderful thing to see a new access point, because anyone who tries to access care, even with insurance, you’re waiting months to try to get into places,” Horsnby said.
While Medina Health Center originally launched in 2014, according to board member Arshe Ahmed, the organization’s new clinic represents a shift to “frontline” primary care that expands their original model. Previously, local medical centers such as Capital Health and Robert Wood Johnson referred patients to Medina Health, who subsequently visited specialists in their respective offices.
“We weren’t brick and mortar before; we were a clinic beyond walls,” Ahmed said. “Now we want to sort of serve from that frontline and say, let’s start with primary care and the specialty care stuff will stay.”
In light of recent hospital closures, including St. Francis Hospital in Dec. 2022, Abdul Mughal, a physician and hematology specialist, emphasized the importance of accessible care in the Trenton community. To expand the clinic’s reach and impact, Mughal said he hopes to continue to engage in partnerships with nearby health facilities, as well as host more events to “get the word out and the passion that we have for what we’re doing.”
“I think the need is there, and we’ll grow with time,” he said. “Hopefully we’ll have other resources that we can reach out to. We will be able to serve more people.”
