BOSTON (AP) — Bob Thompson learned he had prostate cancer after routine screening at the Whittier Street Health Center, a community-based facility that has long served serving thousands of residents of the inner-city Roxbury neighborhood.
The screening probably saved his life, said Thompson, 60, a long-time Roxbury resident who had surgery for the cancer last May.
“Without it I probably would not have discovered that I had cancer, it would have gone on for a number of years and the cancer would have gotten worse,” he said.
On Monday, Gov. Deval Patrick and others will attend a ceremony dedicating Whittier’s new, $35 million state-of-the-art facility viewed by many as a model for efficient health care delivery to traditionally underserved urban residents. The six-story, 79,000-square-foot building has been described as a “one-stop” center for health care and social services, offering 19,000 residents everything from cancer screening to dental care to violence prevention programs.
Patrick said community health centers like Whittier are critical to the state’s twin goals of providing universal care while reducing costs.
“Part of the way to assure access and also part of the way to assure cost-containment is encouraging
Read More from the Article Source: Full Article
