Allan Gould, right, executive director of AIDS Outreach Center of Tarrant County, today announced that the combined boards of AOC and the AIDS Healthcare Foundation have signed a letter of intent to plan and develop the Community Healthcare Clinic in Fort Worth specifically to offer medical treatment to people with HIV/AIDS.

Gould told Dallas Voice this afternoon that “if all goes as planned, we anticipate that the clinic will be open by April 2012.”

In a written statement released today, Gould said the clinic will “underscore AOC’s mission of being the ‘one stop shop’ addressing the HIV client’s vital medical, emotional and social service needs. He also said plans are in the works to implement a mobile health care van to meet the needs of those with HIV/AIDS living in rural areas.”

He said that estimates are the clinic will initially serve more than 400 individuals when it opens.

Based in Los Angeles, AIDS Healthcare Foundation is the nation’s largest provider of HIV/AIDS medical care, offering cutting-edge medical care to more than 27,000 people in the U.S., Africa, Central America and Asia, regardless of the patient’s ability to pay, according to AOC’s press release. In the U.S., AHF operates 14 healthcare centers and 11 pharmacies in California, Washington, D.C., and Florida.

Read Gould’s statement in its entirety below:

“Today AOC stands at a very important and strategic threshold which will define our agency and the continuum of care we provide to those with HIV for decades to come.

“It has been our dream form the very beginning of our founding that AOC would be the place for those with HIV/AIDS to turn for an all-encompassing program approach to meet their needs and concerns. To that end, AIDS Outreach Center has in the last month signed a letter of intent with the AIDS Healthcare Foundation to partner in the development and running of a state of the art healthcare clinic addressing the needs of the HIV/ADS community in Fort Worth. The location will be incorporated into AOC’s existing 21,000-square-foot facility at 400 North Beach Street or as a stand alone in close proximity to underscore AOCs mission of being the ‘one stop shop’ addressing the HIV clients vital medical, emotional, and social service needs.

“This dramatic push to complete the AOC vision of what is essential to meet the needs of our clients is facilitated, in part, by recent events which have impacted adversely the lives of so many without the means to cope with the ever-changing dynamics associated with the HIV epidemic.

“Future plans are already being discussed to implement a mobile healthcare van serving the needs of those stigmatized due to living in the rural parts of our service area. Not only with this much need and long over due healthcare component address issue of HIV and STDs in rural counties but will also act as a screening tool for early diagnosis of other health issues — mammograms, high cholesterol and blood pressure, heart disease, and other basic but sometime neglected healthcare concerns for those living in areas with less than adequate healthcare facilities.

“We feel this is the right time in our history to make this leap of faith and see it as only the beginning in becoming universally more ‘in tune’ to the needs of many diverse populations in our community that are ‘at risk’ for not only HIV but other dangerous and life treating heath care conditions. And in doing so, we will position AIDS Outreach Center to meet the on-going challenges and changes associated with HIV and other healthcare concerns not adequately being addressed by the established medical community.”