• Richard Drexler, Felix Fröschle, Christopher Predel, Berit Sturm, Klara Ustorf, Louisa Lehner, Jara Janzen, Lisa Valentin, Tristan Scheer, Franziska Lehnert, Refmir Tadzic, Karl Jürgen Oldhafer, and Tobias N Meyer.
• Asklepios Campus Hamburg, Semmelweis University Budapest, Hamburg, Germany.
• J Public Health (Oxf). 2020 Nov 23; 42 (4): 793-798.

BackgroundStudent-Run Free Clinics (SRFCs) have been an integral part of US medical schools since the 1960s and provide health care to underserved populations. In 2018, we established an SRFC in Hamburg, Germany, a major city in Northern Europe. The aim of this study was to describe the central problems and to investigate the usefulness of an SRFC in a country with free access to medical care, such as Germany.MethodsAll consecutive patients treated at the SRFC Hamburg between February 2018 and March 2019 that consented to this study were analyzed regarding clinical characteristics, diagnosis, readmission rate and country of origin.ResultsBetween February 2018 and March 2019, 229 patients were treated at the SRFC in Hamburg. The patients came from 33 different countries with a majority (n = 206, 90%) from countries inside the European Union. The most common reasons for visiting the SRFC were infections (23.2%), acute or chronic wounds (13.5%) and fractures (6.3%).ConclusionOur multicultural patients suffer mainly from infections and traumatological and dermatological diseases. We find similarities to published Canadian SRFC patient cohorts but differences in diseases and treatment modalities compared to US SRFCs. Importantly, we demonstrate the relevance and necessity of the SRFC in a major city in Northern Europe.© The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Faculty of Public Health.

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