Health clinics to cut hours in half

Published 9:38 pm Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Public clinics in Everett and Lynnwood will have their hours cut in half next year, just one of the steps the Snohomish Health District will take to trim $1 million from its budget.

Even so, during a meeting of the health district board on Tuesday, Snohomish County Council member Dave Gossett said additional money is expected to come from Snohomish County, perhaps as much as $368,000.

This means some programs could be saved that had been on a list of proposed cuts. These include staff in the health agency’s sexually transmitted disease clinic, programs that work with area child care providers to help protect children’s health, and home visits to low-income pregnant women to help ensure healthy pregnancies.

The public health agency’s budget won’t be approved until next month, but is expected to be about $19 million.

An estimated 20 full-time equivalent positions will likely be cut, said Rick Mockler, the health agency’s deputy director. This is in addition to pay for seven full-time equivalent positions that was frozen earlier this year to try to reduce spending, he said.

The list of cuts approved by the health district board on Tuesday are expected to add up to about $1 million, said Suzanne Pate, health district spokeswoman, affecting about 14 percent of the staff and 25 percent of the programs at the local public health agency.

Probably the biggest change the public will notice is the reduction in days of the health district’s clinics. They provide services such as flu shots, childhood immunizations and shots required of people traveling overseas.

The Everett clinic, at 3020 Rucker Ave., will reduce the days it will be open from five to three, Mockler said. The Lynnwood clinic, 6101 200th St. SW, is expected to be open just two days a week next year.

However, with the budget still not set for next year, it’s too early to know what specific days each clinic will be open, he said.

The 15-member Snohomish Health District board includes all five members of the County Council and elected city officials from throughout the county.

Last month, faced with the possibility of even more layoffs, a group of six board members agreed to work on a top-to-bottom review of every program in the public health agency.

They met three times to discuss what programs would be cut to balance next year’s budget. In addition to reducing the days the health agency’s clinics are open, they include:

Discontinuing its West Nile virus education and surveillance programs.

Eliminating technical assistance to 315 small public water systems in the county, those with 12 or fewer connections.

Eliminating its Healthy Communities program, which helps set up new programs to encourage children and adults to be more active to help reduce diseases such as high blood pressure, obesity and diabetes.

Cuts to its tobacco education programs for teens.

Reductions to a program that provides referrals to low-income families for help with food, housing and health care.

Reductions to an oral health program for kids with approximately 473 fewer children expected to get cavity preventing treatments.

Reporter Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486 or salyer@heraldnet.com.