The Miami Herald, Inc.; Wednesday, June 25, 1997
Cristina Llado; Herald Staff Writer

The Prevention, Education and Treatment center on South Beach (PET) and the Quail Roost Drive center in South Dade may have to find alternative placement for their patients and close before July 31, said Annie Neasman, executive manager of the Dade agency.

The closings are not certain, she said. "These are just options we're considering."

Employees and patients at the South Beach PET had a different version of events.

"Planning? No way. They've given us official orders to shut down on July 31," said an employee, who asked for anonymity, fearful of being fired. "Everybody out, by express order of Mrs. Neasman."

According to employees, the center's operators were given the shut-down order during a meeting with management Monday morning.

Many patients showed up Tuesday at the center to express their surprise and anger.

"What a mess this is going to be!" said patient Denis Regueira, 49, who was diagnosed HIV-positive nine years ago. "If I can't come here [for treatment], I'm not seeing another doctor ever again," he said. "This is the only place where we're treated like human beings, not like plague carriers."

Eduardo Lopez and Adalberto Vega, also HIV-positive, are organizing a protest by patients.

"We've already organized a picket line, and if I have to chain myself to the door and go on a hunger strike, I'll do it -- but I won't change to another center," Lopez said.

Dade County's public-health budget for next fiscal year will be officially announced July 1.

"Until then, nothing is final," Neasman said. "We only want to be prepared, so that our service to patients and the community will not be affected."

Sixty-two part-time employees have been dismissed, effective July 3, Neasman said, and 78 other employees, part- and full-time, have been warned that their jobs are at risk.

When health department area chiefs submitted estimates of their needs for 1997-98, some months ago, their requirements totaled $48 million.

But, administrators now say, the budget allows only for $39 million for the fiscal year beginning July 1.

"We're going to trim services, not end them," Neasman said. "We will continue to serve our patients and protecting the public." The next step is to find medical service providers who can take care of the 600 patients at the South Beach PET. Three are likely, Neasman said: South Shore Hospital and the Stanley C. Myers Community Health Center, both in Miami Beach, and the department's own medical center in downtown Miami.

"This is going to be a disaster," said Dr. Arsenio Cordova, who works two days a week at the South Beach center. "Of the three, the only one that has experience in matters of AIDS and HIV is South Shore, but we're totally saturated. We're just four doctors, looking after 1,000 patients a month."

CAPTION: HECTOR GABINO / Herald Staff ORGANIZING A PROTEST: Eduardo Lopez, right, and Adalberto Vega outside the Miami Beach center, one of several health facilities that may have to cut back services or close because of budget problems.

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