Posted by Urban Times News on November 13, 2003 at 09:28:36:

FOUNDATION OFFERS FREE HEALTH SERVICES TO COMMUNITY Urban Times News
UTN NEWS

Jersey City—Wasting no time at all since opening their doors just two weeks ago with a ribbon cutting by Mayor Glenn Cunningham, the City’s first Black Private practice medical office in more than a generation is offering free services to the community they aim to serve.

Drs. Pius Chikezie and partner Dr. Emmanuel Okechukwu of Foundation Medical at MLK and Union will give free flu shots and free diabetes and hypertension screens on Wednesday November 19th. “ We are walking the walk and not just talking the talk. We aim to be the leaders in providing accessible quality medical care in the neighborhood that we serve. These are two conditions that are rampant in the African American and Hispanic population of this country today. We are dedicated to bringing immediate and significant changes in healthcare issues affecting the neighborhood. And we are also dedicated to closing the racial gap in medical care. We will focus on preventing diseases that predominantly affect the community we serve.”

The two doctors combined to form Foundation Medical Group and Urgent Care Center in 1999, which currently operates one location at 802 Clinton Avenue in Newark. Dr. Chikezie has been a member of the medical staff at the Jersey City Medical Center for the last ten years and spent seven of those years teaching resident doctors. “When I tell people what we intend to do, they generally look at me like I had two heads. They want to know what is wrong with me. I tell them that we have a deep commitment to bringing visible and significant changes in healthcare issues affecting the neighborhood, and we are voting with our feet and with our dollars by putting down roots here.” Dr. Chikezie also has begun writing a bi-weekly column for the Urban Times News on health issues of particular importance to the African Americans and Latinos.

Dr. Chikezie has been terminated as a salaried member of the medical staff by the management of the Jersey City Medical Center exactly seven days after the appearance of his first Health Care column in this publication. He has instead been offered freelance or “independent contractor” employment as a physician by the medical center, at a rate of $5,000 a month or $60,000 annually.

Chikezie explained that “independent contractor” status is not really a viable option for a physician because of the expense of insurance needed that would eat up nearly half the $60,000 a year. “My alternatives were to open my own practice, which I was strongly considering for a long time, or to get another staff position, which I could easily do with my record. I choose this.”

Management of the medical center has made it abundantly clear to all members of the staff that there would be dire consequences to any employee who spoke to the press and in particular the “Black Press,” as management refers to the Urban Times News. Management has told numerous employees specifically not to speak with this publication under any circumstance and that to do so would trigger the harshest consequence.

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