Activist Medical Providers Offer Free Healthcare

After providing medical care for homeless patients at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, Dr. Juliet Widoff came up with what she calls “a nutty idea”: to offer health-care services, for free, in a New York City public park for anyone who needs them.

Earlier this month, Dr. Widoff, the founder of Healthcare for the People, spoke to CCNY students via zoom about why she created her new initiative and to offer thoughts about the state of the United States medical system.

Dr. Widoff, a primary-care provider who practices at Callen-Lorde Community Health Center in Manhattan as her “day job,” launched Healthcare for the People on September 19^th in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park. Along with several other doctors, nurses, an acupuncturist and other volunteers, she provides first aid, flu shots, blood pressure and blood sugar testing, and other services for those who either don’t have health insurance or can’t access treatment and care. Over the past three weekends she has seen growing support. “Our first Saturday, though extremely well attended by friends and supporters and family was not so well attended by patients,” she said. “But our second and third ones have been pretty amazing. Last Saturday, we saw 25 people.”

While working in a hotel that served as a COVID-19 clinic for homeless people over the summer, Dr. Widoff witnessed the chaos embedded in the system and began to feel fed up. “I have patients who are trying to decide whether they can afford to eat on a given day or pay for their copayments,” Dr. Widoff stated. “Our medical system is broken on every level. It is only working for private insurers, and perhaps healthcare executives of a certain stature and for pharmaceutical companies.”

She and her colleagues were also motivated by the work they did during the AIDS epidemic. “I didn’t think I was going to become a doctor, and then many of my dear friends started dying of HIV,” Dr. Widoff said. “I did health education and advocacy work for a bunch of years, and then I needed to feel like I was doing something that was going to be meaningful.”

That activist spirit drives her current project. “We have slowly but surely hobbled together this project,” she explained. “A lot of things we don’t have access to and that we can’t do. But we’re pretty resourceful people.”

As the weather gets colder, Dr. Widoff and her crew will have to re-think working out of doors. But in the meantime, you can find Healthcare for the People at the Ocean and Parkside Avenue entrance of Prospect Park Saturdays from noon to 4 PM.  “We have a vibrant and wonderful community,” she said. “When we succeed at caring for each other, we ensure the health and wellbeing of each other.”