ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — As the world collectively bands together to battle COVID-19, there are still other patients waging war on deadly diseases already impacting their daily lives.
Dr. Robert Wallace, at Love The Golden Rule clinic in St. Petersburg, is anxious about a vulnerable group of the population running out of their medicine.
“Particularly people with depression are out of their medicine right now, their doctors are not available, so I see people with HIV, Hepatitis C, high blood pressure, diabetes and people who are depressed,” Wallace said. “Particularly, people who are suicidal. If you suddenly stop, their anti-depressants have that risk of becoming suicidal. The other thing is hypertension; for example, if people are out of their medicine, they risk heart attack and stroke.”
While some doctors are doing telemedicine, Wallace said he is taking extra precautions with patients and staff and wants to see patients.
“There are benefits to having telemedicine. My whole thing is having been a doctor for 40 years, now I want face-to-face time," Wallace said. “You can’t always pick up symptoms doing telemedicine."
Dr. Wallace is offering free visits on Fridays. He said people who qualify must be unemployed, been laid off, not have insurance, no symptoms or exposure to COVID-19 and wait in their car until cleared to enter the building.
Only one free visit per person until May 6.
The address to the office is 3000 1st Avenue North St. Petersburg, and the office phone is 727-826-0700.