For over a decade the Seattle/King County Clinic has provided free healthcare to droves of patients from across the state. However, organizers of the annual four-day event announced this week that they plan to stop operating the clinic because it has become unsustainable.
The final free clinic will be held at Seattle Center from April 29 to May 2, 2027.
“We really struggled with this decision,” said Julia Colson, the clinic's founder and project executive. “We grieve the loss of this clinic after 2027, but we also really honor the people and organizations who have worked together to extend its life.”
The event is organized by Seattle Center, which converts the campus’ facilities into places where patients receive free medical, dental and vision care. Since it began in 2014, the event has become a huge resource for under and uninsured people. It is a huge effort that requires thousands of volunteers to help care for roughly 3,000 patients over the span of a few days each year.
Despite broad support for the clinic, a number of challenges have emerged in recent years, including rising costs and fundraising challenges. However, organizers say this was not purely a financial decision. A news release stated that “essential equipment and services for the Clinic’s operations will no longer be available, with no viable alternatives.”
Colson told KNKX that if the clinic can’t sustain a certain level of care it shouldn’t continue.
“We are dealing with the lives of people and it is not fair to try to limp along if we cannot operate this clinic at its full capacity,” she said.
Organizers said that the consolidations and a changing “healthcare landscape” are contributing to the challenges faced by the clinic.
“It's a little bit like a Jenga block,” Seattle Center’s acting director, Randy Engstrom, said. “If you pull a medical director or a dental director or a piece of equipment or a software platform out of the stack, it becomes really, really unstable.”
Engstrom said if it were up to him, Seattle Center would hold the clinic “forever.” But it is not that simple.
"As a clinic that is dependent on borrowed, or rented, resources that then maybe aren't available anymore, or are sunset, or are cycled out,” he said. “It’s not like you can just go get another vision clinic or another dental clinic.”
Christine Lindquist was surprised when she found out about the closure. She is the executive director of the state’s free clinic association, the Washington Healthcare Access Alliance Executive. Still, Lindquist said, she understands. Across the state, she said many free clinics are at capacity and philanthropic resources have become difficult to access.
“Not just money, but access to things like radiology and labs and prescriptions and all the things you have to provide if you’re going to provide healthcare,” she said.
Lindquist said it is incredible that the Seattle/King County Clinic was able to operate for so many years, but its closure will prevent people from being able to access healthcare.
“There will be people who just don't get the healthcare that they need,” she said. “They will live with illness or injury that is completely unnecessary and treatable, and it will diminish their quality of life.”
Moving forward, Seattle Center will work to connect Seattle/King County Clinic patients to health resources and support more permanent community programs.
