Officials celebrate opening new Salamanca healthcare clinic

 SALAMANCA, NY — Several state and local community leaders, elected officials and healthcare representatives were on site Wednesday for the grand opening of Universal Primary Care’s new clinic in Salamanca.

Located at 445 Broad St. in the old Park Pharmacy, this UPC healthcare site offers OB/GYN, adult and pediatric medicine as well as behavioral health services.

Mike DeRose, the UPC board chairman, praised the work done by UPC for opening the clinic in a short timeframe.

First to speak was State Senator Catharine Young, R-Olean, who said UPC opening a new office is important because of the medically underserved areas across Western New York.

“There is that need to have medical professionals who are going to go into the community and bring the health care to them,” she said.

Gail Mayeaux, CEO of UPC, said the opening was a momentous day for UPC and a culmination of years of planning.

“I could not be more proud to officially open this clinic today,” Mayeaux said. “For me, today, I come full circle.”

Although she grew up in Limestone, Mayeaux said she first fell in love with Salamanca and the surrounding communities as a sports editor at the Salamanca Press. She said coming back years later and opening a clinic was uniquely special as well as “an honor and a responsibility” she takes seriously.

“My sincere wish for you and for us is that UPC always delivers on the promise of value to its communities,” she said.

Lee James, speaking on behalf of U.S. Rep. Tom Reed, R-Corning, said Federally Qualified Health Center such as UPC are important to local, rural communities where traditional health care centers cannot always provide the service,s needed.

“It was an honor for Congressman Reed to announce the approval of a $3.2 million grant in the Southern Tier Community Health Care Center Network, of which UPC is part of,” James said.

The grant, funded through the Health Resources and Service Administration, would be used to support continued services to disadvantaged populations located in rural Cattaraugus and Allegany counties.

“We care about providing accessible and affordable health care to those across our region,” she said. “We’re glad to see this project come to life and will continue to advocate on behalf of FQHCs both locally and in Washington, D.C.”

“My wife and I fell in love with this area,” he said. “We can imagine no greater place to raise our triplets and to really call home.”

In addition, Kimberly Bielata, nurse practitioner, will move her office from UPC Olean to Salamanca.

“I really do think we have the greatest health care team to provide high quality services and high quality care to our patients,” Ferrell said.

Bielata will be available Monday through Friday and Ferrell will be available Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.

To make an appointment in the Salamanca office, call 375-7500, ext. 5.

(Contact reporter Kellen Quigley at kquigleysp@gmail.com.)