By the end of the summer, a bus staffed with volunteer medical professionals could be making the rounds at local homeless camps and shelters, offering services to people who might otherwise go untreated.

Central Oregon Veterans Outreach, a Bend-based nonprofit that offers services to local veterans — including many who are homeless — is heading up the project. The group has a bus, donated by NeighborImpact, that it hopes to overhaul into a traveling medical clinic.

Chuck Hemingway, COVO’s executive director, said the bus would provide services to veterans and anyone else who needs assistance. He said it’s been clear for some time that there is a major need for medical care among the area’s homeless population, particularly after reviewing the reports from this year’s one-day homeless count.

The survey found that about 2,400 people in Central Oregon were homeless, up 7 percent from a year earlier.

“Almost every person we talked to, most of them were experiencing some kind of medical issue, and expressed a want and a desire to get some kind of medical help,” he said. “As we make the runs out into the camps, that continues to be something we hear.”

Hemingway said he’s hopeful the bus will be up and running by September. But first, the bus has to be checked by a mechanic and outfitted with equipment, including a refrigerator.

The group has had a lot of help so far, with a mechanic at Superior Automotive Technology volunteering his time and Consolidated Towing helping to move the bus around for free.

He said local veterans, notably Zin Watford, a retired Marine, have helped get the project up and running.

Another big task: finding volunteers who will donate their time to drive the bus and treat patients.

Ron Brown, a volunteer with Volunteers in Medicine, a nonprofit clinic that serves uninsured and low-income people in the area, said he’s hoping to get volunteers from throughout the local medical community. More volunteers will mean more days the bus can head out to homeless camps.

Brown said he hopes dental services will be a part of the effort along with other medical care.

“Two of the biggest problems are dental and podiatry,” he said. “A lot of the podiatry things can be taken care of on-site. You need water, soap, tools and equipment. There may be a need down the road for tetanus shots and vaccinations at some point.”

People with more serious medical conditions could be transported to a medical facility or get help with referrals for an appointment at a later time.

Cindy Pasko, director of community development for the Partnership to End Poverty, said people living in homeless camps are often miles away from medical clinics and don’t have any way to get the help they need. Others who find a way to get into Bend or Redmond or another city with a medical clinic find themselves bounced from place to place without getting treated.

“A lot of people that have been disabled, injured or have untreated mental illnesses end up homeless,” she said.

Hemingway said the bus would probably start out in Deschutes County, but could later branch out to serve people in Crook and Jefferson counties.

He said he also hopes to work with other local nonprofit groups that are working on a similar project. United Way of Deschutes County and the Partnership to End Poverty recently applied for a $90,000 Oregon Community Foundation grant that would pay for staffing and equipment of a traveling health services van. The van would visit Bend twice a year and make an annual stop in other local cities.

The groups will find out if they get the money sometime in the next few months.

To learn more

For more information or to volunteer with the medical bus effort, contact Central Oregon Veterans Outreach at 541-383-2793.