Emanuel Medical Center announced that it will be closing its two Emanuel Family Practice clinics in Turlock and Patterson on May 8.

The two Emanuel Family Practice clinics are located at 2240 W. Monte Vista Ave., Turlock and at 1010 W. Las Palmas Ave., Suite E, in Patterson.

According to Emanuel, the closure is necessary because the sole remaining primary care physician, who currently provides services at both locations, is departing from the practice.

Despite Emanuel’s best efforts, it has been unable to recruit replacement physicians — largely due to a national shortage of primary care physicians.

State Senator Anthony Cannella (R-Ceres) shared his concerns over the closure of the two clinics and discussed the need to bring more physicians to the area.

"These two clinic closures will have devastating effects on our community and further proves our area is woefully underserved," said Cannella. "The San Joaquin Valley is disproportionately affected by California’s physician shortage with access to healthcare 31% lower than the rest of the state, and sadly, these closures deepen the gap, solidifying the fact that we are in dire need of physicians to serve the more than four million people living in our region."

Every patient of the two clinics will receive a letter notifying them of the closure.

In addition, Emanuel is making extensive efforts to assist patients in establishing a new primary care provider, including:

• Providing patients with a list of area clinics that accept both Medi-Cal and Medicare patients
• Establishing a dedicated, toll-free hotline for the patients of Emanuel Family Practice, through which information will be provided about comparable clinics, and/or physicians in private practice who are accepting new patients
• Providing language translation assistance in multiple languages, including Spanish, Assyrian (Farsi), and Portuguese
• Making the dedicated, toll-free hotline available for the balance of 2015

The 14 employees affected by the closures have been provided severance packages and will be encouraged to apply for positions within the hospital, as they become available, according to a press release.

All of Emanuel Medical Center’s other specialty clinics will continue to operate as normal, with the same level of staffing.