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The patients that Dr. Bill Markle and his colleagues see on Thursday nights at the Ninth Street Clinic are a lot like the patients at any other family practice.

They need vaccinations or physicals. They have colds that won't go away or rashes that won't heal. A few have chronic long-term conditions, like diabetes, or drug or alcohol problems.

But unlike most physicians, who want their practices to thrive, Markle wants patients to stop coming to see him.

"I'm hoping there will be some government program that will come along and make us unnecessary," says Markle, medical director and co-founder of the Ninth Street Clinic.

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The clinic, located in the basement of the former YWCA on Ninth Avenue, Downtown, treats patients who don't have health insurance and don't qualify for public assistance.

Open from 5 to 8 p.m. Thursday nights and staffed entirely by volunteers --- many of them from UPMC McKeesport hospital --- Ninth Street Clinic asks patients to contribute whatever they can. Most donate $5 or $10.

Their donations help defray the cost of blood and urine tests, says Nina Tomaino, behavioral counselor and a clinic volunteer.

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According to Tomaino, Ninth Street Clinic sees about 30 to 40 patients each week.

Not all of the patients come from the city. A spot-check of addresses on one recent Thursday found patients from Liberty Borough, White Oak, Elizabeth Township, North Versailles Township and Duquesne, along with one person who came all the way from Uniontown.

While some of the clinic's patients are homeless, Tomaino says many are employed, but in jobs that offer no medical coverage --- driving buses, working at child-care centers or waiting tables.

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"We have a lot of middle-aged women who maybe have gotten divorced or been widowed, and found they have to re-enter the workforce," says Mary Markle, a registered nurse and William Markle's wife. "They're working in personal care homes or other jobs where they need medical care, but can't get it."

The clinic also sees several people each week who need a physical for a driver's license, she says.

Tomaino, who recently retired from UPMC, says about one-third of the patients return for follow-up visits, but Ninth Street Clinic isn't really designed for ongoing treatment.

"We're not here to create dependency --- we're here to stabilize people and get them healthy," she says. For people who need continuing care, Tomaino says, the clinic tries to match them with appropriate resources.

That sometimes includes filling out the paperwork to put them on public assistance programs, if they qualify, she says.

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A native of West Newton who's been practicing medicine since 1973, Markle put himself through Washington & Jefferson College and Penn State College of Medicine in Hershey by working at U.S. Steel's Christy Park Works.

Currently program director of UPMC McKeesport's family medicine residency program, Markle is also a clinical associate professor of family medicine at the University of Pittsburgh.

Ninth Street Clinic is an outgrowth of the needs he observed at the hospital, he says.

"We saw so many patients there who were coming in who needed basic things done, but had no insurance," Markle says, "or who had neglected their needs, and I just got tired of it."

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Asked if UPMC McKeesport's emergency room is a substitute for primary care, Markle just scoffs.

"Look, we've seen people with cancers that have been neglected," he says. "We see people with high-blood pressure and diabetes that have gone untreated."

Hospital emergency rooms can't provide everyday screenings that spot those kinds of conditions, Markle says. Nor can they provide routine care.

"We see a lot of folks for job physicals --- if they can get a job, they can get insurance, but they don't have $150 or $200 for the physical," he says. "We can do it here for practically nothing."

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After studying two existing free clinics in Allegheny County --- the Birmingham Free Clinic on Pittsburgh's South Side and another run by Catholic Charities in downtown Pittsburgh --- the Markles and several other health professionals created the Ninth Street Clinic.

Volunteers from Walnut Grove Assembly of God in West Mifflin remodeled the basement of the old YWCA at no cost to the clinic, which is registered as a tax-deductible charity.

McKeesport Hospital Foundation has been one of the clinic's biggest financial supporters, Markle says. The clinic's budget "isn't huge, really," he says. "To do what we do is certainly less than $20,000 per year."

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On any given Thursday, the full complement of volunteers at Ninth Street Clinic includes two doctors, two medical students, one resident and one pharmacist.

In another part of the building, Barb Williams, a teacher at Founder's Hall Middle School and a volunteer with the Partnership for Minority HIV/AIDS Prevention, offers confidential screenings.

The clinic would eventually like to add a dental clinic, Markle says. (Patients who need dentistry are currently referred to Catholic Charities or UPMC Braddock hospital.)

And Markle says he could use some more volunteers --- namely, nurses and physicians. "At first, we put out the word, and a lot of people wanted to come," he says. "The attending doctors, for the most part, have stayed, and the residents like to come down."

Additional volunteers would give the regulars a break, when necessary, Markle says.

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Still, with a core group of volunteers and financial backers, Markle says, Ninth Street Clinic's business model is sustainable for the foreseeable future.

But he hopes that it won't have to be. Markle sincerely wants the clinic to become obsolete because of some sort of universal health care plan.

"I don't want to be in business forever," he says.

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Ninth Street Clinic is open from 5 to 8 p.m. Thursdays and is located in The Common Ground Building (formerly the YWCA) at 410 Ninth Ave., Downtown.

Individual, corporate and foundation donations are welcome. Call (412) 664-4304 for more information.