Suitcase General Clinic

Run by , affiliated with UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco.

The General Clinic is the oldest of the Suitcase Clinic’s three drop-in centers targeting the low-income and homeless populations in Berkeley, receiving up to 40 clients per night on average. For over 20 years, the General Clinic has been a safe and successful place for the homeless to receive medical and chiropractic care, to pick up hygiene supplies, to talk to a lawyer or a social worker, or just to hang out with Berkeley students.

Arrive between 6:00 – 6:30PM if you intend to utilize services. The Clinic Coordinators and other service coordinators will begin intake for individual services at 6:30PM. All services except for optometry and dental are provided on a first-come, first-serviced, drop-in basis. The optometry and dental divisions use a lottery system (see below for more information).

SERVICES OFFERED (Note: All services are free and operate on a drop-in basis. Not every service is offered every week. Check our Calendars page or call our voicemail for service availability.)

Services Run in Conjunction with Professional Service Providers:

Medical: UCSF-UCB JMP Medical Students and one Attending Physician are available weekly for medical examinations, diagnoses, prescriptions, physicals, and other services. STD/STI Testing, Mental Health, and lab testing such as blood cultures, urinalysis, etc. are not offered. For example, they can take out stitches, examine possibly broken bones, and provide consultations (and a limited amount of medication) concerning rashes, infections, flus, asthmas, colds, and sprains. They do not have powerful painkillers, cannot do papsmears, cannot do anything about broken bones, and cannot put in stitches. Referrals to other medical clinics are offered through our Continuity of Care Advocate (CoCA) volunteers. Intake and Triage begins at 6:30PM and service is offered 7:00-9:00PM.  All medicine, even over the counter medicine, cannot be given out by the Medical Service without the client seeing the doctors.  Prescriptions are not kept on file.  Medical students take a patient history of the client with the caseworker present and then the medical student presents the case to the physician.