At the start of this decade, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services set as one of its primary aims the elimination of health disparities by the year 2010. On the eve of this deadline, the neighborhood of Hunts Point in the South Bronx stands as a sharp indicator that efforts to achieve this goal have failed.
Data collected by New York City’s Department of Health is telling: nearly half the population characterizes their health as fair or poor, the death rate is 35 percent higher than the rest of the city, the hospitalization rate for heart disease is 50 percent higher, and 17 percent of the population has diabetes, double the rate for New York City overall.
Home to 800 industrial businesses and two detention centers, this heavily Latino neighborhood where almost half the population is at or below the poverty level, has some of the greatest shortages of health care providers in the city. It also has some of the highest rates of uninsured. More than one-third of the population lacks health insurance or went without it at some point within the past year. For residents suffering from diabetes, this lack of access to care compounds the difficulties in managing their disease, and for some has proven deadly.
Less than 10 miles away, on the affluent Upper East Side of Manhattan, which has the lowest rate of diabetes in the city and highest percentage of insured, the number of health care providers dwarfs Hunts Point.
Thirty-five percent of residents in Hunts Point reported that they lacked a personal doctor, compared to 18 percent of residents on the Upper East Side. Primary care doctors are important to overseeing the management of diabetes, but patients often need a host of specialists as well, since the disease can lead to vision loss and blindness, amputations, skin disorders, heart disease, and depression.
Endoctrinologists
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Opthamologists
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Podiatrists
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Federally funded clinics, including Urban Health and Hunts Point Multi-Service Center, have proven critical for the neighborhood, but workers say they are overrun with clients.
Dr. Thomas O'Brien
(photo: Sophie Coocke)
Thomas O’Brien, who has run a non-profit clinic in the neighborhood for 14 years, talks about the challenges to maintaining a practice, and why there is a severe shortage of doctors.
He also explains diabetics’ need for specialists and describes the difficulties for patients in obtaining needed services.
