County looks for health care answers for Carrabelle

            As debate intensifies, county commissioners have scheduled a June 21 workshop to discuss the future of primary health care in Carrabelle.

            At Tuesday morning's meeting, Clerk of Courts Marcia Johnson defended her stance that a cost-effective solution needs to be reached regarding county-supported primary health care in Carrabelle.

            County commissioners, led by Cheryl Sanders and Bevin Putnal, reiterated their position that the county health department's clinic must remain open.

            During a heated exchange, Johnson expanded on June 16 statement that it makes better fiscal sense to locate the proposed urgent care facility in the existing health department annex than for Weems to build a new facility next door with revenue from the one-cent sales tax.

            "When I made my remarks, they were with the understanding that the health department was closing its operation and the building would be vacant. I am committed to all the citizens of this county and I care about the people of Carrabelle," she said.

            "I said then and I stand by it now, that speaking from a financial standpoint, it would be more feasible to use that empty building to house the Weems Urgent Care facility than to construct a new building next door," Johnson said. "The health department could be allocated several rooms to offer services which they perform that Weems doesn't.

            "My suggestion would save the county money while allowing the health department to continue to provide services to Carrabelle," she said. "I can't see allocating additional funds to subsidize a non-county, state- operated facility at this time."

            At the June 16 commission meeting, Wesley Tice, who oversees the county health department, said budget constraints might force the department to shut down its Carrabelle primary care clinic, which has served the east end of the county for the last two years.

            Sanders insisted the commission had promised Carrabelle a new building for the urgent care facility, and that she was committed to getting Carrabelle a new building even if the money had to come out of the general fund.

            "It seems like any time the budget gets cut, it's cut in Carrabelle," she said. "It's not the county's responsibility to do this, but we do a lot of things we don't have to that are needed."

            Putnal said the clinic is "needed as badly as anything in this county." He said it has served 2,000 people so far this year, of all ages and from every part of the county including Apalachicola.

            In Johnson's prepared remarks, she said the state, not the county, was primarily responsible for funding the health department.

            She pointed out the county already budgets $126,000 to the health department, or $10 per citizen annually, well in excess of neighboring counties. Liberty County budgets only about $5.70 per person for its health department, while Gulf is around $7.70, Gadsden about $2 and Wakulla nothing at all, she said.

            Johnson contended county money should be used to support Weems Memorial Hospital, which it owns and operates, and that Crooms Transportation, which receives a stipend from the commission, could transport patients from the eastern end to the Apalachicola clinic, if need be.

            "I wasn't trying to create an east-west issue or diminish the needs for the citizens of the Carrabelle area," she said.

            County Attorney Michael Shuler reported that the county had received a letter of concern from Carrabelle over the proposed shutdown of the clinic. In the letter, Carrabelle City Attorney Dan Hartman said Carrabelle "would vigorously oppose" closure of the health department's clinic.

            "Alone the Weems clinic is not adequate to serve the entire eastern part of the county. We must exhaust all efforts to keep the county facility in operation," he wrote.

            The commissioners invited the city of Carrabelle to send representatives to the workshop, which they voted unanimously to hold at 1:30 p.m. at the courthouse annex June 21.

            At that time they plan to discuss providing health care for Carrabelle and the east end of the county, and the Weems Hospital governing board, officials from the county health department, Shuler and Johnson will all be instructed to attend.

            Sanders and Johnson differed Tuesday as to the meaning of statements of support made by an a Department of Health official in Tallahassee.

            Sanders said she spoke to a state official in the department and he told her "whatever the board wants they can have. They said we didn't have to provide any funding. Marcia, we appreciate your getting this information (on health department funding) but we didn't ask you to get it."

            But Johnson persisted in questioning where future funding would come from and whether commissioners were willing to raise millage for such a need. "Are you going to cut county departments to fund something you aren't mandated to do?" she asked.

            "You will have to answer to the county employees. You are the decision makers. You've got to live with the decisions," Johnson said. "Who's going to pay for it?"

            She said funding the clinic at the Carrabelle annex would be "a persistent expense" and that she feared other state agencies would soon come to the commission complaining of shortfalls.

            Commissioner Noah Lockley emerged as a calming force amidst the heated give-and-take.

            He said that after talking to Weems CEO Chuck Colvert, he believed that Weems could take care of both primary and urgent care needs for the Carrabelle community.

            "Some of these issues can be worked out but we have to sit down and negotiate," he said.