Vidalia &8212; After more than a month of service to evacuees, it&8217;s about to come to an end. The Concordia Parish Free Evacuee Clinic will take its last patient at 6 p.m. Friday, clinic director Grace Woods said.

&8220;It&8217;s like they say, all good things must come to an end,&8221; clinic director Grace Woods said. &8220;I&8217;m satisfied that what we did was worthwhile. All the patients were so grateful and appreciative for the help they got.&8221;

Woods, with ample help from various parish agencies and the American Osteopathic Association, put together a basic medical clinic virtually overnight and manned it for more than a month, seeing more than 800 evacuees with a broad range of medical problems. Woods said the clinic will have seen more than 900 patients by the time it closes.

&8220;We&8217;ve done some good work and seen some lives changed,&8221; Woods said.

Doctors and nurses from the AOA donated their time and some supplies to help evacuees who did not have the money to get medical help through other means. In the process, the clinic also alleviated the load on other local medical facilities, Woods said.

&8220;I figured it out, we saved about $800,000 in emergency room visits for these people,&8221; Woods said. &8220;If we did nothing else, we saved bills for people who don&8217;t have the money to pay for it.&8221;

The plan had originally been to keep the clinic open long enough for the Sicily Island Medical Center to open a new clinic in Ferriday, Woods said. But work on opening the Ferriday facility won&8217;t be complete until late November or early December, and Woods said she can&8217;t keep things going that long.

But evacuees in need can still get medical help by calling the Sicily Island Medical Center at (318-389-5727), Woods said. Payments are made according to a sliding scale, so help for needy patients is available.

The center provides free transporation on Monday, Wednesday and Friday by appointment.

Dental care is also available by appointment.