.jpg)
Lexington’s Allergy and Immunology Clinic, run through Carilion Health, will be closing at the end of April.
The clinic, located at 108 Houston St., opened in 2011. Currently, the Lexington clinic is run by Dr. Gates Hoover, who travels from his practice in Salem once a week to provide services to the Rockbridge area. “Allergy and Immunology requires specialty training and experience,” Dr. Jon Sweet, senior vice president and chair of the department of medicine for Carilion, told The News-Gazette in a statement this week.
“It has become increasingly difficult to recruit and retain Allergy and Immunology specialty teams for all of our clinics, with the greatest impact at our Lexington practice. Unfortunately, this is not uncommon in rural medicine,” he said.
With the closing of the Lexington clinic, patients will need to travel out of the county for in-person allergy care.
“Due to our current staffing challenges, we have consolidated services with our existing practices. For some patients, telemedicine may be an option. For all patients, our Daleville, Salem and Roanoke locations remain available for in-person care needs,” said Sweet.
“We understand that this is an inconvenience for patients, and we value the opportunity to continue to work together to make this transition as seamless as possible.” -Two of the clinic’s local patients who spoke to The News-Gazette expressed both disappointment and frustration.
A long-term patient of Dr. Hoover’s, who asked to remain anonymous, said she was frustrated at Carilion’s decision to shutter the clinic, as well as the lack of communication with patients.
“Considering that I’ve been a patient of Dr. Hoover’s for probably 20 years, I think very highly of him, and I think it’s stupid that Carilion is closing it,” he said of the clinic.
“I was just informed like the rest of the patients. I received a letter in the mail that pretty much affects my whole family, because we all see him, so, it’s not a good thing,” he said.
Janice Friend, who has been a patient at the Lexington allergy clinic for about four years, spoke about the difficulty of traveling as far as Salem for regular care.
“Once in a while they’re not able to come up and I’ve had to drive down to Salem to get an injection and drive back for an hour — these logistics happen, but obviously that’s very inconvenient.”
Friend, who noted that the clinic has had a patient load of up to 50 a week, said the Lexington clinic provides services that would be otherwise inaccessible locally.
“There’s no one else between Daleville, which is just north of Salem, and Waynesboro for allergy/immunology care. There’s no one else who comes to town; there’s no services at the hospital,” she said.
She also said she was disappointed that it was Carilion’s decision, rather than the doctor’s, to close the clinic. “Dr. Hoover is a great doctor, his clinic has been wonderful. We’ll all be very sad if they close in 30 days,” said Friend.
“It’s going to be a disappointment to have to travel that far for this kind of care. If the doctor had been unwilling to keep commuting, I would have been disappointed but I think I would have felt a little better about it,” she said.
“But instead the company has decided that it’s not worth it to them.”
