Frances W. Quee, MD
Frances W. Quee, MD
Pediatrician
NYC Health + Hospitals/Gotham Health, Belvis
Transforming Lives at Belvis
When she was 10 years old, Dr. Frances Quee’s father fell critically ill. “We took him to the hospital and spent most of the day waiting for services,” she recalled. “I felt so bad that he was not even treated well because we didn’t have the money to pay. When he got better, I promised him I will study hard to become a doctor so I can help people who cannot afford private health care.”
Dr. Quee – now a pediatrician at NYC Health + Hospitals/Gotham Health, Belvis – has made good on that promise and then some. Over her 30 years of caregiving, Dr. Quee has cared for children who are now adults and are bringing their children back to her practice because of her. Her journey has taken her around the world – from college training at Moscow State Medical School in Russia to a teaching hospital internship in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone in Africa.
“Dr. Quee was instrumental in ensuring that children continued to receive the necessary care throughout the pandemic and has helped to bring families back into care by alleviating fears and enforcing the necessity of children getting timely care and needed vaccinations,” said Dr. Jeremy O’Connor, Regional Medical Director at Belvis.
“Growing up poor, I always wanted to help people who are underserved and who have no one to advocate for them. I see myself in the children I take care of, and if I can make even a minimal change in their lives, that makes my day,” said Dr. Quee. “Working every day and seeing how the children and their parents look up to me for advice, I see how I have changed most of their children’s lives – them completing high school or even college and aspiring for higher heights because I look like them and always encourage them that if I can do this, you can too.”