Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2004. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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San Francisco Examiner - December 9, 2004
J.K. Dineen, Staff Writer
With $23 million in health care cuts proposed, the nurses and social workers stood in the drizzle and lamented the impact the reductions will have on children, sick and the elderly.
The proposed belt-tightening comes as The City faces an immediate $97 million shortfall that stems from the defeat of revenue-generating propositions J and K. Of the $97 million in cuts, public health programs would be hit with $14.8 million, including $4 million in AIDS funding, and wide elimination of in-home nursing services, mental health and addiction counseling.
Public health nurses who work in the community -- in the homes of the elderly and on the streets -- would be particularly hard-hit, said nurse Lisa Leighton, who works at the Silver Avenue Family Health Center. Leighton said she has watched the department dwindle from 76 nurses 20 years ago to 38 today. If the proposed cuts go through, 22 more of the nursing positions will be eliminated, leaving just 16 positions.
Leighton blamed a public perception that activists always manage to stop the drastic budget reductions at the last minute. Instead, reductions have been made through attrition.
"We go through this every six months and people think [the cuts] are phony," said Leighton. "But they are happening."
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