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by Iris Biblowitz (c/o Michael Lyon)
Dear Joan Ryan:
Your columns give me hope that you will write a balanced account of a
complicated story: how cuts to public health will affect vulnerable
San Franciscans.
The public face of Mayor Newsom's budget is one of minor
inconveniences and shared but manageable pain for all. This is not
true. Please investigate and publicize the details of the devastating
effects budget cuts to the Department of Public Health (DPH) will have
on our community, especially people who are homeless, poor, and
undocumented.
All the neighborhood clinics are being cut. Attached below is a fact
sheet specifically about Tom Waddell Clinic, a block from City Hall,
where I work as a nurse. Tom Waddell Clinic sees about 70,000 patients
a year. They are divided among urgent care, primary care, and
community sites such as shelters, hotels, and the Day Labor Program.
We are the main clinic for people who are homeless, and our urgent
care clinic functions like a small emergency room. Open six days a
week, it is a huge safety net for the entire city, especially for the
most marginalized, vulnerable people. Urgent care at Tom Waddell also
provides a more cost-effective alternative to the swamped ER at San
Francisco General Hospital.
There is so much PR around Care Not Cash, but we are the frontline
clinic that serves people who are homeless, and DPH Director Dr. Mitch
Katz has proposed completely cutting urgent care at Tom Waddell and
severely diminishing our ability to give care in our primary care
clinics. These cuts will lead to more than simply minor
inconveniences.
We're one of the main entry points for patients to get into detox. How
will they get into these programs now? Many of our patients have major
mental health problems. How will they navigate the system? Who will do
all the TB and STD screenings now performed at Tom Waddell? Our clinic
does critical outreach for the HIV, homeless, and transgender
communities.
All this translates into not only decimating care for the poorest
people in San Francisco but also into creating great risks to public
health in general. Many of our patients would have gone without care
and died were it not for our urgent care clinic.
The reporting about DPH cuts has given the impression that
neighborhood clinics would remain intact and that cuts would mostly
affect administration. Many nurses will be cut, and clinics throughout
the city will be in tatters. Please help us get the truth out.
I hope you will contact me and some of my coworkers. I can give you
names and contact information. Thank you for your patience in reading
this long letter.
Sincerely,
Iris Biblowitz, RN
415/285-4536
c/o ftaylor@cmp.com
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