Belmont Cragin is slated to be the new home to a $12 million public health clinic if City Council gives the final OK to level a long-vacant field house on the grounds of Hanson Park Elementary School. According to DNAinfo, the 24,000-square-foot clinic would house 30 exam rooms at 5411 W. Fullerton Ave. 

The new facility would almost triple the size of an existing county clinic in Logan Square. The Logan Square Health Center at 2840 W. Fullerton Ave. would relocate its staff and patients to the new facility. If all goes as planned, the center would open in late 2018 or early 2019 and offer free health and dental care to thousands of uninsured individuals on the northwest side.

Belmont Cragin is one of the largest clusters of uninsured people in the city, Arroyo said in the report. 

Cook County Commissioner Luis Arroyo Jr. told the publication that doctors say they have outgrown the current space. Currently running at full capacity, the new facility would open space to offer dental and gynecological services as well. 

The facility is changing locations for a couple reasons, one of those being the shifting population of the Logan Square neighborhood. Debra Carey, the county’s chief operating officer for ambulatory services, reported that many patients that go to the clinic have moved west.

If plans are finalized soon, the demolition of the field house could begin as early as November.