New Services Offered to Addicts Affected By Clnic Closings

The closure of the 30 medical branches that make up Preventative Medicine Associates has resulted in Gosnold, a treatment center on Cape Cod, offering services for the patients affected by the closings. Gosnold is the largest provider of addiction and mental health services in the Cape Cod area and offers primary care, inpatient rehabilitation, transitional care, and residential treatment. The treatment became available on October 3rd and since then a Gosnold physician and several counselors are available to see patients in Gosnold's Centerville clinic.

President and CEO of Gosnold, Raymond V. Tamasi, said that the closures have created a state of emergency for addicts in treatment. He hired Dr. Robert Friedman, medical director of the Sandwich branch of Preventative Medicine Associates to work three days a week at first to help the patients displaced by the closures. Interestingly, Friedman's Sandwich clinic was closed back in August, which was 2 whole months before the entire larger organization, Preventative Medicine Associates, collapsed a couple weeks ago. Friedman was interviewed by the Cape Cod Times back in early September on his clinic's reaction to the abrupt shut down of their clinic and how Kishore randomly layed off three employees during their lunch hour.

Tamasi expects over 100 patients from Preventative Medicine Associates to take advantage of the newly available services. Gosnold will also be expanding its services to include the use of the injection drug vivitrol that eases the withdrawal symptoms of patients by blocking opiate receptors in the brain. The drug significantly reduced the craving symptoms associated with drugs like heroin and oxycodone. Gosnold will expand these services to accommodate the new patients permanently, says Tamasi. Gosnold must now find a way to take on these new patients who need counseling and other services which are not easily covered by insurance. Tamasi released a statement to the Cape Cod Times saying, "We do what we can by going to the community (for fundraising) and applying for grants."

The website for Preventative Medicine Associates does not address the organization's current state of affairs and attempts to contact Dr. Kishore were unsuccessful. Patients displaced by the closure of PMA clinics are instructed to call Gosnold at 800-444-1554 for outpatient care.