Rosemary Bakes-Martin, administrator of the El Paso County Department of Health and Environment, painted a bleak picture of public health services at the annual meeting in April.”Things have gotten worse since last year, and we are heading for a ‘perfect storm’ in public health,” Bakes-Martin said. As the population increases, money for the Health Department has decreased. In 2006, the county cut the department’s budget to $5.1 million and downsized department personnel to 250 employees. In 2007, the department’s budget was slashed to $3.8 million and the employee count dwindled to 209.The cuts are affecting an array of services.Public swimming pools should be inspected twice during a season, Bakes-Martin said, but that didn’t happen in 2007. Six pools were closed in 2007 because of e-coli problems, she said.Inspections of child care facilities and nursing homes in the county suffered a similar fate. Bakes-Martin said without regular inspections the elderly living in care facilities are at a greater risk.According to figures that Bakes-Martin presented, the elderly are not the only ones affected by slackened county services.”Ten percent of the infectious diseases statewide came from El Paso County last year, up from 3 percent in 2006,” she said. “Also, in 2007, El Paso County had the highest number of whooping cough cases in the state.”The lack of resources also hinders testing for sexually transmitted diseases. The county currently has the highest rate of Chlamydia cases since 1829, she said.If the department is foregoing cause-related research and is not intercepting latent cases of infectious diseases – treating only the active cases – it could mean more illnesses throughout the county, Bakes-Martin said.Restaurant inspections have been jeopardized as well. The Health Department adheres to a standard that calls for twice-a-year restaurant inspections. In many cases, restaurants are inspected just once a year, Bakes-Martin said.”If we don’t get increased funding, in the future we will inspect only when complaints are received, and restaurants may have to delay opening because we don’t have the staff to inspect them,” she added.El Paso County Sheriff Terry Maketa attended the annual meeting and vocalized his concerns. “If restaurants are not inspected, what is their motivation for complying with the rules?” Maketa asked.He compared the Health Department to law enforcement.”Public health and public safety are mirror images.”
