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| Fast Action Sought for Health Care |
| By The Chronicle |
| Published: 11/21/2005 |
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A court-appointed prisons expert said last week that because of soaring vacancy rates for doctors, nurses and supervisors, the California prison health care system is "disintegrating" and requires emergency intervention by both the federal court and the governor. The report calls for immediate steps to raise salaries significantly as a recruitment tool, by more than 15 percent in many cases throughout the prison system. The most pointed proposal is that the governor be ordered to appoint, within five days, personal representatives to oversee the required changes. That proposal, if accepted by the judge, could ensure high-level oversight for the first time in the crisis, and also make Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger personally accountable if the system, which provides health care for 165,000 inmates, deteriorates further. Federal district court Judge Thelton Henderson has issued a stream of harshly worded orders over the past year on the abysmal state of health care in the state prisons. Because of the state's failure to improve conditions, Henderson has ordered that a court-appointed receiver seize control of the vast system, under which, he has said, there are as many as 64 preventable deaths of inmates a year. The new report, by John Hagar, a prisons expert appointed by Henderson last month, is even more specific in citing failed leadership by officials at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, and it sounds an even more urgent alarm that the prison health care system is in danger of collapsing because of the state's failed policies. "State officials have no coherent or realistic plan to implement correction actions," Hagar wrote in the 33-page report. He added, "Given the steady loss of necessary clinical personnel, it has become apparent that without orders from the court, the (department's) health care system may simply collapse." Bruce Slavin, the corrections department's general counsel, said that he could not dispute "the gist" of the report and that the state intends to comply with the proposals if the judge orders the report implemented. Julie Soderland, a spokesman for the governor, said that Schwarzenegger was aware of the report and was "already working on some key appointments." She added that the governor will meet any deadlines imposed by the court. In his report, Hagar said, for instance, that vacancy rates among health care officials at the state prison headquarters is now about 80 percent, suggesting an almost complete loss of leadership and no apparent effort to rebuild it. The vacancy rate for doctors alone has doubled since the summer, the report said, to about 30 percent, but it is much higher at some prisons, particularly for primary care physicians. The vacancy rate for some nursing supervisors is more than 50 percent. The vacancy rate for chief physicians is 65 percent. |
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