Climate Pledge Arena organizers ‘need to be held accountable’ after free clinic gets delayed
Mar 24, 2022, 5:19 PM | Updated: Mar 25, 2022, 6:21 am
A past Seattle/King County Clinic. (Credit Save the Seattle King County Clinic and Richard Arnold)
(Credit Save the Seattle King County Clinic and Richard Arnold)
Since 2014, Seattle and King County have hosted a free clinic at the Seattle Center. Sidelined during renovations, Climate Pledge Arena originally slated its return for October 2022. Then show business intervened.
The free clinic averages an attendance of 3,000 people. Services provided include cancer screenings, tooth filling and denture fitting, eyesight testing and eyeglass prescriptions, annual checkups, and a full range of services to those who cannot otherwise afford health care.
鈥淭here’s a big pent-up need for health care. People would come from out of state, drive, and stay overnight at Seattle Center to attend this clinic. The need is astronomical,鈥� Dr. Rick Arnold, medical director with , told 成人X站 Newsradio.
鈥淵ou can’t imagine how fulfilling it is to have somebody who can’t get a job because they can’t see, and you give them a pair of glasses. Suddenly, the world opens up for them,鈥� Arnold said.
Dr. Arnold says the cancelation of this year鈥檚 free clinic stems from the arena鈥檚 interest in hosting certain British invasion and country-western acts.
鈥淐limate Pledge is run by an organization called the Oak View Group. I think they need to be held accountable. They need to treat people in our community who are less fortunate with the same consideration that they do The Who and the Zac Brown Band,鈥� Dr. Arnold offered.
The board responsible for the clinic unsuccessfully looked into other venues as a fallback in 2021; in years past, the free medical service has been run out of other Seattle Center venues, including the Seattle Opera.
The logistics involved in a venue-pivot were too much: Only one company in the United States has the capability to rent out the equipment necessary to keep the clinic operational, and its services were unavailable on the October date in question. The board expects they will need another year to 18 months to identify an alternative solution.
Were that solution go through, and the clinic move ahead with operations with a tentative spring 2023 date, three years will have elapsed since the last time Seattle/King County Clinic opened its doors.
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