Beginning Aug. 7, TOMAGWA HealthCare Ministries in Tomball will reopen on Fridays after more than nine months of opening four days a week to conserve financial resources.
The clinic provides medical and mental health care as well as counseling for low-income, uninsured residents in the northwest Harris County, southwest Montgomery County and southeast Waller County areas.
Last October, the clinic began closing on Fridays after experiencing a strain in funding with a record level of new patients, said Judy Deyo, TOMAGWA HealthCare Ministries executive director. TOMAGWA has since received thousands of dollars in community donations and a grant from the Tomball Regional Health Foundation, which has helped the clinic reopen on Fridays, Deyo said.
“When we let the community know that we were being overwhelmed by the number of new patients, people responded, and it was amazing,” Deyo said. “We didn’t have a drop in donations from our longtime faithful donors—they just kept giving. We also had many new donors that started to contribute that we had not heard from before. That made a tremendous difference.”
TOMAGWA HealthCare Ministries sees about 50 patients each day at the clinic and an additional 10 patients daily through its dental operation, Deyo said.
“That’s our mission to help people,” Deyo said. “To be closed on Fridays and not be able to do that was very painful. We are extremely happy to be open again. We knew there were people out there needing help, and they didn’t have anywhere to go to get it.”
As a family practice clinic, patients can receive treatment at TOMAGWA for sore throats, earaches, high blood pressure and other conditions. In addition, the clinic has also become a valuable resource for diagnosing cancer over the past two years and helping patients find other resources to begin treatment, Deyo said.
The clinic is offering its annual back-to-school immunizations Aug. 13 and 20 at its Tomball location, and patients are encouraged to register beginning at 8:30 a.m. each day, Deyo said. TOMAGWA also operates half-day-a-week clinics in Magnolia and Waller.
Despite the clinic’s financial strain, TOMAGWA’s dental operation was able to remain open five days a week since October due to another grant from the Tomball Regional Health Foundation, Deyo said.
TOMAGWA HealthCare Ministries receives 100 percent of its funding from community donations and receives no federal dollars.
To donate to TOMAGWA HealthCare Ministries, visit www.tomagwa.org, mail a check to 455 School St., Ste. 30, Tomball, 77375 or contact 281-357-0747 for more information.
