Local residents at HUDA Clinic listen to a representative discuss the Clinic’s many services.

DETROIT — Henry Ford Hospital of West Bloomfield showed its support recently to a Detroit clinic that provides free medical care to the needy. 

Representatives of the hospital presented a check for $11,000 to the HUDA Clinic in Detroit – the Health Unit on Davison Avenue.

The funds were raised in 2013 at the annual Henry Ford West Bloomfield Hospital Charity Ramadan Dinner. The event was made possible by a gift for faith-based community outreach by Gary and Margaret Valade of Bloomfield Hills. Donations were received from Henry Ford physicians and medical staff, as well as members of the Muslim community. The additional funding will help to offset medication costs and extend clinic hours.

Although the leadership and staff of the clinic are Muslims, services are offered free to those in need, regardless of religion or ethnicity. More than 70 percent of the clinic’s patients are non-Muslim.

“You’ve got to go where the biggest need is,” says Zahid Sheikh, M.D., co-founder of HUDA Clinic and associate medical director, of After Hours Careat the Henry Ford Health System. “For those of us who are doing ok, what do we give back?”

HUDA Clinic sees 30 patients a day and offers services in Internal Medicine, Psychiatry, and Ophthalmology, as well as referrals to various specialties. A dietitian is on staff as well. Currently open three days a week, the clinic also has a lab and pharmacy.

Physicians and other health care providers from Detroit Medical Center, Henry Ford Health System, St. John Providence Health System, and others, volunteer at the clinic. Medical and dental students from Wayne State University and University of Detroit Mercy also have opportunities to gain health care experience at the clinic.

The clinic plans to offer dental services in the near future and continues to expand in hopes of becoming a full-service medical clinic. Additional plans include adding more examination rooms to the current number of four.

The HUDA Clinic is located at 13240 Woodrow Wilson St. in Detroit. It opened in 2004 in the Muslim Center Mosque and Community Center on Davison, and moved across the street in 2012 to its current location.

Henry Ford West Bloomfield Hospital is seeking proposals from nonprofit organizations in the metropolitan Detroit area to be the beneficiary of next year’s Charity Ramadan Dinner.

For more information on submitting a proposal, please call Rev. Jim Kraft, manager of Pastoral Care and Outreach Services, at 248.325.0175 or pleasue visit: chaplain@hfhs.org.