Southcentral Foundation schedules clinics in three Aleutian villages

Sand Point, Akutan and Atka will gain temporary access to dental and primary medical care this month, as Southcentral Foundation sends traveling providers to hold short-term clinics layered atop the villages' existing tribal health clinics. Dental clinics run in Sand Point and Akutan from Aug. 24 through Sept. 4; a primary care clinic runs in Atka Aug. 23-26.

Elizabeth Fernandez Guerra is the dentist listed for Sand Point, Nathan Lukes, DMD, for Akutan, and David Lessens, MD, MPH, a Southcentral Foundation integrative family physician in Anchorage, for Atka.

The visits follow an itinerant model: providers travel to the villages on a set schedule rather than practicing there full time. Eastern Aleutian Tribes operates clinics in Sand Point and Akutan, and the Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association serves Atka, where oral health care comes through Southcentral Foundation under Indian Health Service funding. Southcentral Foundation says it serves more than 65,000 Alaska Native and American Indian people, including 55 rural villages in its Anchorage Service Unit.

Between visits, Sand Point residents use the Eastern Aleutian Tribes clinic on Red Cove Road, by appointment. The nearest hospital is roughly 570 miles away, in Anchorage.