CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – This coming weekend is the RAM@UVA-hosted Remote Area Medical pop-up clinic at the Augusta Expo Center in Fishersville.
Remote Access Medical (RAM) has served more than a million patients in some 1700-plus operations since starting its nationwide clinics back in 1985, with more than 238,000 volunteers delivering more than $232 million in medical services.
“Anyone can attend,” UVA student volunteer and Albemarle County resident Tommy Williams told WINA Morning News the week. “It’s first-come, first-serve free medical, dental, and vision care, and we also have other services such as chiropractic, haircuts as well as some other community resource booths, too.”
RAM@UVA began the annual Fishersville clinics in 2022. The year’s clinic is Saturday and Sunday.
In the past, people from across the Eastern Seaboard, including from around Virginia, have come to the clinics at UVA.
There’s no ID required, according to a RAM release, and everyone is accepted with no questions asked first-come, first-served until capacity is reached.
The parking lot opens Saturday morning at midnight and the clinics open 6 a.m. Saturday and Sunday.
“I’m doing my master’s in public health right now, and it’s only really shown me even more why clinics like these are so important because, you know, health care should be accessible to everyone,” Co-organizing leader Ria Raval told WINA Morning News. “Although RAM clinics aren’t really providing permanent care, it does definitely offer people in the region a chance to attend and get those services when they’re not able to otherwise.”
“This has really exposed me to rural communities, and I have a lot of interest in rural medicine kind of as a future career because of my experiences in RAM, so it’s been really special,” UVA student Taylor Krafchick, the organizing co-leader along with Raval, told WINA Morning News.
RAM@UVA members host this particular clinic every year, but it’s not the only clinic with which they volunteer.
According to their website, they’ve had volunteers work in clinics in Maryland, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Pennsylvania in addition to Virginia.
Since 2024, they’ve provided about $3.7 million in free health care to more than 5000 patients in those clinics.
