NEWHALL MEMORIAL'S MOBILE CLINIC READY TO ROLL OUT TO COMMUNITY.

Byline: Angela M. Lemire Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA - The Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital Health Foundation's new mobile health clinic will take to the streets this week, in a drive to extend affordable medical services to the community.

Health on Wheels, a collaboration with the Samuel Dixon Family Health center, Foundation for Children's Dental Health, Northeast Valley Health Corporation and Valencia Health Clinic, paid its first ``house call'' Friday at Newhall Elementary School. There hospital personnel announced the mobile unit is ready to roll, said spokeswoman Janice Newbold.

The mobile clinic will make its first stop from 12:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, providing free immunizations outside Newhall Elementary Family Resource Center, 24607 N. Walnut St.

The foundation's 37-foot motor home is furnished with medical equipment and exam rooms to deliver preventive and primary care to residents with limited access to medical services. The five area health agencies will staff the mobile unit, officials said.

School physicals, adult physicals, exams for healthy and sick babies, immunizations and women's health care screenings are among the clinic's planned programs. Besides exam areas, the mobile unit's facilities are equipped to provide X-rays and dental exams for children, plus teeth cleanings, extractions and fillings.

Fees will be charged on a sliding scale, based on a patient's medical insurance and income, officials said.

Newhall Memorial officials conceptualized Health on Wheels after receiving the 1993 Elante motor home as a gift from Dr. Howard F. Detwiler, former director of the hospital's behavioral unit, and his mother, Dorothy.

By then, the idea had brewed for some time among foundation officials, who knew that low-income residents needed better access to medical services. Hospital officials estimate roughly 9,700 people within the Health on Wheels service area live below the federal poverty level, Newbold said.

Local residents are invited to visit Health on Wheels to obtain information on state-funded medical and dental insurance programs, such as Healthy Families and Medi-Cal for Children, hospital officials said.

For its first year of operations - projected to cost $70,000 annually - the foundation has secured a $72,000 grant from the state's Rural Health Demonstration Project. The foundation will seek corporate grants and have fund-raisers to continue operations in future years, according to hospital officials.

For complete schedules for Health on Wheels, call Newhall Memorial at [phone]. For information on Northeast Valley Health Corporation's free immunizations on Wednesday, call [phone].