Original version

BBC World Service schedule for American satellite radio and the Caribbean

BBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean

The Documentary

Documentaries

Factual

Investigating global developments, issues and affairs.

No Master Brand

BBC World Service Australasia

BBC World Service

BBC World Service News Internet

BBC World Service South Asia

BBC World Service Europe and the Middle East

BBC World Service Online

BBC World Service East Asia

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa Schedule

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa

BBC World Service West and Central Africa Schedule

BBC World Service West and Central Africa

BBC Afghan Radio

The Documentary: The health wagon

The Health Wagon

19/11/2022 GMT

The health wagon

BBC World Service - The Documentary, The health wagon

On the road with the oldest mobile clinic in the Appalachian mountains of Virginia

On the road with the oldest mobile clinic in the Appalachian mountains of south-west Virginia.

The health wagon serves remote communities in the Appalachian mountains of south-west Virginia. It's the oldest mobile clinic in the USA, founded in 1980 by a catholic nun in the back of a VW Beetle. 

Today it is a thriving and innovative non-profit, with five mobile units and three stationary clinics. Nurse practitioners Dr Teresa Tyson and Dr Paula Hill Collins are at the helm. We join them and their team, providing no-cost medical, dental and vision care to one of the most vulnerable, medically underserved areas of the United States. In 2021, the Health Wagon treated nearly 11,000 patients.

At the Wise County fairground, the health wagon partners with the US military for a 10-day event. Barns are sanitised and transformed into a makeshift dental surgery and medical centre, ready to treat patients. For the military, this is an innovative readiness training mission - a program which gives reserves the opportunity to train while helping local communities.

We also hear from Wendy Welch, executive director of the Southwest Virginia Graduate Medical Education Consortium and the author of multiple books about health in south-west Virginia.

(Photo: A volunteer checks a patient's vision at the Remote Area Medical (RAM), mobile clinic in Wise, Virginia. Credit: John Moore/Getty Images)

Accessibility links

Programme Index

The Documentary

The health wagon

Genres

Brand

BBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean

About BBC World Service