On Saturday, November 8, the Health Wagon and the Appalachian School of Pharmacy will host a free health fair in Buchanan County. Cancer screenings and other preventative health procedures will be offered.
This will be the first time in several years the Health Wagon has hosted a health fair like this in Buchanan County. This community in far Southwest Virginia has suffered repeated flooding in recent years. When the Health Wagon brought their mobile disaster relief medical team to check on residents, they saw a need for more preventative medical care, explained family nurse practitioner Paula Hill-Collins.
“This area has been just devastated time and time again with flooding,” said Hill-Collins. “We saw patients that didn’t have their medication. But also, this is an elderly population to begin with, so a lot of them are in need of the chronic disease prevention.”
Like most Health Wagon events, a number of preventative treatments will be available for free, including screenings for diabetes and hypertension.
“Preventing the complications that come from untreated diabetes and hypertension. Some of those things are silent, and they really don’t realize how bad that it is and how sick they are until they can’t see or their kidneys are failing,” said Hill-Collins.
Patients can also get liver tests, pap smears, and labs.
“We’re even doing skin biopsies. If you have a place that you’re worried about, you can come in, and we’re doing skin biopsies,” said Hill-Collins. “And it’s all to bring hope to the community and to help prevent these chronic illnesses before they progress.”
The event runs Saturday from 9-4 at the Appalachian College of Pharmacy campus in Oakwood. Hill-Collins recommended patients try to arrive by 8:30. For more information, contact the Health Wagon 276-328-8850.
