We at the Health Department are committed to providing quality services to the public with available resources. I want readers in Falcon to be among the first to know that the Health Department is reorganizing and refocusing its efforts for 2009, based on:
- Cuts in local funding totaling $2.3 million since 2002
- Failed efforts to secure a stable funding solution for the Health Department
While seeking a stable, long-term funding solution, the Health Department sustained core public health protection by drawing on funds intended for epidemics and other emergencies. But that can’t continue. Because no other funding options are available, the Health Department has been forced to eliminate important public health protections to preserve and sustain others. Some services the public expects the Health Department to provide will no longer be available. Unfortunately, this means the community will face the potential of greater risk.
The following public health services will be reduced, suspended or eliminated in 2009:- Air quality: Monitoring indexes, facility inspections, new construction planning, including the ability to respond to complaints about dust – eliminated
- Water quality: Rural non-community ground water system inspections – eliminated
- Swimming pool/spa inspections and regulation enforcement – eliminated
- Vector/Zoonoses: West Nile virus surveillance, reporting and testing, including response to complaints about mosquitoes – eliminated
- Surveillance and testing of rodents for plague – eliminated
- Hantavirus and rabies investigations and testing – limited
- Solid waste management: Follow-up response to complaints regarding household trash, animal waste and foreclosed property health hazards – eliminated
- School safety education and regulation enforcement: Sanitation, science rooms, chemical storage and general safety – eliminated
- Childcare inspections: Sanitation and facility safety compliance – eliminated
- Complaint follow-ups – limited to high-risk diseases or outbreaks
- STD surveillance and investigations: Local health department investigation of reported infections and contacts – eliminated
- Temporary event food vendor inspections: Planning, training and regulating -suspended
- New operating days/hours: Effective Jan. 5, 2009, the Health Department will be open Monday – Thursday (closed Fridays), from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Staff reductionsTo operate the public health programs in line with limited local funding, it was necessary to reduce staffing by 37.5 full-time equivalent (FTE) positions. That brings the number of reduced staff no longer protecting public health to 73 FTEs since 2000.
The Health Department’s focus for 2009 will be to maintain:- Population-based public health protection
- Infectious disease tracking and control
- Health education and promotion (disease prevention)
We will provide more details about this renewed focus in the weeks ahead.
What about retail food establishment inspections?I mentioned to preserve some critical functions we had to completely eliminate others. We will continue to inspect retail food establishments – including restaurants, school cafeterias and vendors such as hot dog stands – because this is an area of greater risks for foodborne illness. But even with our concentration in this area, we are unlikely to be able to meet the state requirement of performing such routine inspections at least twice yearly. This comes at a time when El Paso County’s number and rate of foodborne illness outbreaks is twice that of any other county in Colorado (January-October 2008.)
Challenges the Health Department facesIt’s important citizens engage with the Health Department and understand decreasing local funding has limited our ability to protect you. Please visit our Web site at www.elpasocountyhealth.org for more details.
Local needs require local fundingOne question I’ve been asked is why the Health Department can’t divert grants and other funding that it receives from the state and federal government for specific projects into providing core local public health protection. Although the majority of Health Department funding comes from grants (56 percent), this money is restricted and cannot be diverted to fund core public health programs, such as communicable disease investigation and prevention and environmental health services, including restaurant inspections. El Paso County provides 18 percent of the department’s total funding, which costs each local taxpayer less than $5 per person annually.
Please visit our Web siteOne way we intend to meet your needs for public health information is through an enhanced Web site. Please visit our Web site often at www.elpasocountyhealth.org. Your input is important and we want to meet your public health education needs as much as we can. If I can answer questions, please contact me at 719-578-3101 or healthinfo@epchealth.org.Again, thank you for the privilege of serving you!
