Photo via MICAH - Facebook
Community members supporting keeping Next Door Pediatrics open
Community members support keeping Next Door Pediatrics open.
Children’s Wisconsin plans to close their Next Door Pediatrics-Children’s Clinic on Friday, Dec. 8, ending primary care with only dental care remaining at the building. Located at 2561 N 29th Street, the North Side clinic is the closest available facility for many Milwaukee families living in poverty. This decision is being met with pushback, as it will mean that medical care will be further inaccessible in already-under-resourced and economically marginalized neighborhoods.
Milwaukee Inner-City Congregations Allied for Hope (MICAH) strongly opposes closing the Next Door clinic. Health equity organizer Dianna Merritt weighs in on Children’s Wisconsin’s rationale behind the closure. “They say they’re closing it because it’s a small facility with no room to grow. I toured the clinic, and they have rooms not being used. They also have space in the building next to it, where the clinic originally started. They’re saying the clinic isn’t offering enough services, but it provides hot meals, diapers, clothes and books to the community, plus they have a social worker and therapist. If the hospital believes Next Door needs more services, I would encourage them to use the extra space they have available.”
About 95 percent of Next Door’s patients use Medicaid insurance. Fifty percent of patients are under the age of six. Thousands of patients live in areas where some of the worst public health issues are maternal/infant mortality, prematurity and lead toxicity. Some 20 percent of Next Door patients have lead poisoning, the highest of any Children’s Wisconsin clinic. Creating a medical desert for communities plagued by these problems will have dire consequences.
“Many families walk to the clinic, so transportation will be a barrier,” Merritt continues. “If a child is having an asthma attack, their parents must decide if they will use grocery money for an Uber or wait in the cold for a bus to get to the nearest clinic. Children’s Wisconsin said in a statement that they are committed to making sure all children at risk for lead exposure are tested, but if families can’t get to a clinic, then how can the hospital follow through on this commitment? If children with lead are not tested, then they will have major health issues.”
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Children’s Wisconsin says that they will connect existing Next Door patients to other facilities to assure continued care. This comes with little regard for the economic, financial and transit obstacles that families and patients of the clinic face. In a press release, MICAH said that they believe Children’s Wisconsin being more concerned with cost than serving their communities with quality medical care is not only irresponsible but a direct contradiction of the organization’s motto “Kids Deserve the Best.”
MICAH is calling upon Children’s Wisconsin to halt the Next Door clinic’s closure, and to meet with community members and leaders so that a strategic plan to keep the clinic open and sustainable may be devised. They held a press conference and rally on December 1 at the Children’s Wisconsin corporate office.
Community members may contact Hospital CEO Peggy Troy, State Senator LaTonya Johnson, Milwaukee Common Council member Russell Stamper II, and Commissioner of Health Mike Totoraitis to let them know that healthcare should be accessible to all children and families in Milwaukee.
Visit Milwaukee Inner-City Congregations Allied for Hope’s website at micahmke.org. Visit Children's Wisconsin's website at childrenswi.org.
