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Century Loses Again: Health Dept. Dental Clinic Closing
April 23, 2013
The Escambia County dental clinic in Century will close effective April 30.
The Florida Department of Health in Escambia COunty announced Monday that it will “merge” the pediatric and adult dental clinics service North Escambia into one location by closing the Century clinic while the Molino clinic remains open. Both clinics are operated under contract by ProMed Healthcare Services.
The Century clinic currently averages about 160 patient visits per month.
“We are very disappointed that they feel like…our people can get to the office in Molino for services,” Century Mayor Freddie McCall said. ” They don’t realize our transportation challenges.”
“When I learned of the impending closure of the Century clinic,” Escambia County District 5 Commissioner Steven Barry said, “I felt nauseous, another blow to a reeling community. I spoke to (health department Director) Dr. John Lanza last week and he assured me the Molino clinic will gladly serve the patients who are being displaced.
“I also spoke to Don Turner, Executive Director of Escambia Community Clinics, last week. Escambia Community Clinics may well be the future of the Medicaid dental programs in Escambia County. The vast majority of our residents served are adolescents, who potentially face life long stigmas and repercussions from a lack of access to dental care during their early years. I’m optimistic that as a community and as a county, we can formulate a workable solution to the issue,” Barry continued.
“We would love to see them reconsider,” McCall said.
Clients receiving dental services at the Century location will be able to transfer their care to the dental clinic located at 3470 Highway 29 North near Molino,, to another FDOH-EC dental clinic, or to any other dental office accepting their dental Medicaid plan.
According to the health department:
- The Molino dental clinic will continue to provide services for both adult and pediatric clients participating in Florida Medicaid, DentaQuest, and Healthy Kids dental insurance programs.
- The dental clinic located in the FDOH-EC Northside Pensacola service center at 8390 North Palafox Street, in the Ensley community, will continue to provide pediatric dental services to clients participating in Florida Medicaid, DentaQuest, and Healthy Kids dental insurance programs. Beginning May 1, 2013, adult clients using Florida Medicaid or DentaQuest may have tooth extractions performed at this location.
- Clients using Florida Medicaid, DentaQuest, or Healthy Kids may also receive services at the dental clinic at the FDOH-EC main service center, located at 1295 West Fairfield Drive in Pensacola.
- All dental clinics provide services Monday-Friday from 7 a.m. until 4 pm. For more information, contact the Molino clinic at (850) 587-2544, the Fairfield Drive location at (850) 595-6600 or the Ensley clinic at (850) 471-683.
Over the past several years, Century has lost numerous county and state facilities, including all public schools, a tax collector’s office and medical service from the health department.
NorthEscambia.com file photo, click to enlarge.
Comments
18 Responses to “Century Loses Again: Health Dept. Dental Clinic Closing”
My kids goes to Molino Dental Clinic the staff there goes above and beyond to mske sure u are getting the right treatment and not only that u dont feel like u are on Medixaid when u go there. The head office girl there she will work with u, I hope yall become to love the staff there like my family does!!
We seriously need geriatric services locally. It is so diffcult to find a Dentist that will accept an elderly person with Medicaid coverage.
Looks like they want Century off the map.
Not everyone can afford healthcare to begin with. Not everyone needs it. Seriously, the people working in the office worked hard for the degree they should not need to have to accept less or give charity. Especially in a town full of Meth heads where nearly everyone is to poor to support themselves. Not everyone should get first class benefits.
First the health dep. then the wic office and now tje dentist office looks like century is gonna have tons kids who are starving and all have rotten teeth cause i am.pretty sure not everyone can afford to drive to darn molino!
Health and Hope Clinic is serving a critical need in Century and the surrounding area.
They are providing free primary medical care to the our uninsured neighbors. The County should deed the building over to them or lease it for $1.00 a year. Commissioner Barry you need to make this happen! The North End deserves nothing less!
I may be wrong, but I recall when the health dept. closed in Century, where all my children rec’d mandated immunizations to attend public school, we were told the Molino office would be serving our community for their shots. Last time I tried to “schedule” an immunization at the Molino office, I was told they no longer give these and we would have to go to the Palafox office. Do you know how difficult that is for working parents?–and I know how the county, government, etc. loves working parents so we can pay taxes to keep the government programs running! Can I please at least have access to the government programs I’m paying for???? Please correct me-I’d love to be wrong!
Century has to pay a gas tax for ecat. Now run a bus every hour to where every the tax payers of Century needs to go. Escambia county politicians are all in the clique of the good ole boy club. They STINK with a capital SUCKS!
Pretty simple,, Keep the north end of the county lean and hungry. It is all part of a plan that you will see. When the big machine called annexation rears its ugly head again and I assure you it will happen,the natives won’t be so hard to handle.. I would like to put them on notice, if they think the grease was hot the last time this encounter will be met with the wrath of a woman scorned.
….and on top of this, the building being left behind also houses the Health & Hope Clinic, a free medical clinic focused on primary care for the uninsured in Century and surrounding areas. There are conversations ongoing about what the county will do with the building, now that the dental side will not be used, that may affect Health & Hope Clinic! Hopefully the county keeps the building!!!
>>Take the bus
Let’s go with an 11:30 a.m. appointment at the Molino Dental Clinic for a Century resident taking the bus.
They would need to catch the bus leaving Century at 6:15 a.m., arriving in Molino at Hwy 29 and Hwy 95A at 6:33 a.m. Then they would need to walk south along Hwy 29 about 5 miles. At a little over 20 minutes per mile for a good walker, that’s approaching two hours, so arrive at the clinic at 8:30 a.m. Wait three hours for appointment.
Get finished with appointment at noon. Walk back to to bus stop, stopping at Jimmy’s Grill along the way for lunch — so three hours. Back at the bus stop at 3 p.m. Wait for bus to arrive 3.5 hours later at 6:33, arrive back in Century at 6:47 p.m.
I seriously doubt there are many people with that much stamina, especially with a toothache.
I am born and raised in Century. My mother taught school there before retiring and my father was a volunteer fireman for many, many, years. As far back as I can recall my parents had conversations about how the north end of the county got the shaft when it came to allocation of tax revenue monies and services. Forgive me, I may be wrong, but the last time I heard anything on the issue of raising the taxes on gas in Century, Pensacola was still planning on doing it even though the reason for raising the taxes didn’t benefit Century (ECAT). Now, they decide that the people of the north end can drive 22 miles to Molino to the Health Dept. Why not run an ECAT bus a couple of times a week to Molino to take care of these 160 people? Especially since the people of Century are paying for it?
Take the bus
Century is always on the Defensive, stumbling to stay on foot.
Mayor McCall!,, Identify your towns antagonist, do a planning and feasibility study, then mount an Offensive, become proactive in changing these problem childs to better benefit Century’s needs..
I would consider that there is probably nothing personal in this closing. I would imagine that there is simply no funds as the whole world is broke on it’s behind. Consider.
Can someone please provide us with the number/percentage based on community members that the Molino facility sees per month? On what basis was the decision made to close this facility? Once again, our area has been promised so many things, and the powers that be are not keeping their end of the bargain.
Here we go again taking away the really needed for Century and replacing it with something we don’t need. Can anybody see that Century is not coming up because of the city and county regulations? There is no reason why people would want to live in Century they would have to go everywhere else to get help or a job.
It can’t be called taxation without representation because we have a representative. Problem is he is talking to a deaf ear. We, who live here know we get the shaft, folks on the south end know it also. Its called politics. Given a funding problem they penalize us to cover their …….votes.
Wow you sure put up a fight commissioner. I got a great idea why don’t we just put gates up in Mcdavid, Century, and walnut hill and say closed due to county not giving a rats heiny about us!