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Catawba Indian Nation concerned over tribe's medical care access during government shutdown

ROCK HILL, S.C. — Friday marked the 28th day of the government shutdown.

With no end in sight, the Catawba Indian Nation near Rock Hill is trying to keep critical medical services running without fuderal funding.

Channel 9 visited the reservation's Indian Health Services center on Friday.

It's the facility where tribal members come for their most serious medical visits because many of them don’t have health insurance.

Administrator Pam Wright oversees the center that more than a thousand families depend on for doctor’s visits and medication.

She told us she is focusing on patients, not politics.

“Our morale is just we gotta put the patients first, gotta take care of the patient," said Wright.

Chief Bill Harris told Channel 9 over the phone the medical operation is hanging on by its fingernails.

He says his understanding of the situation is the center's federal dollars have dried up because of the shutdown.

Harris said, “They’re playing with people’s lives over a power play."

The chief says the medical center is now running off the service’s regional emergency fund. Based off conversations with the administrators in Nashville, he believes the money could only last between 45 and 60 days.

“It’s a shame that they’re using people as pawns to play a game to see who is going to come out and win it," Harris said of the shutdown.

Right now the medical center is continuing to see patients who need immediate help.

While Harris hopes there will be an immediate funding fix, Wright is trying to prescribe some hope.

Wright said, “It’ll all work out in the end.”

Larger Indian Health Service centers across the country say they are preparing to lay off their workers.

If the shutdown lasts any longer administrators are going to have to start choosing who gets laid off and which health services get cut.

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