Free Medical Clinics

Abstract

To the Editor.— John Stoeckle, MD, and his colleagues ( 219 :603, 1972) are thoughtful and kindly physicians as well as lucid essayists. However, I fear these virtues are apt to be detrimental if they serve to strengthen in any way the advocacy of free medical clinics which are supplied with equipment left over from doctors' offices, a haphazard system of collecting drugs at no cost, and laboratory tests written off at no charge when sent to generous directors of private or hospital laboratories. I have personally never met any laboratory directors willing to do tests at no charge except in rare and single instances. This is certainly not a system to recommend for the provision of ambulatory medical care. That it has succeeded in some instances is laudable but irrelevant to the large problem of providing medical care to those who cannot afford it. These so-called clinics may well serve