A CHP helicopter waits to airlift an injured climber to a local hospital. Photo by E. Howe. http://www.littleredtent.net
After 80 years time is running out for the medical clinic in Yosemite Valley and unless a new provider steps forward the clinic may close by the end of this year.
For the past 15 years Doctors Hospital in Modesto, a member of Tenet medical, has operated the clinic in Yosemite Village. Now Tenet says the clinic isn’t profitable and has decided not to renew the contract which expires at the end of this year.
If a new concessionaire can not be found, the Yosemite Medical Clinic will close leaving visitors and park employees no choice but to drive more than an hour away to Mariposa.
Currently the clinic operates as a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week outpatient center providing care for almost all non-life-threatening emergencies in Yosemite. Critical patients or patients whose injuries exceed the capabilities of the clinic are shuttled by helicopter to Modesto, Sonora, and Fresno.