BARRY NOREEN: County health department budget cuts are sickening

When the health department is sick, things are getting pretty bad.

Big budget cuts are hamstringing the El Paso County Department of Health and Environment's ability to fight infectious diseases and inspect restaurants. County taxpayer dollars for the agency have decreased by 31 percent since 2001.

During that time, the number of the department's full-time employees has dropped from 250 to 209, while the county's population has grown by about 62,000.

The county's backlog of restaurant inspections not performed is growing. It isn't doing the same kind of follow-up on tuberculosis and sexually transmitted diseases it once did. Testing to detect West Nile virus has been cut back.

"When you get to the point where you don't have enough people to do the job, it's a concern," said Rosemary Bakes-Martin, director of the El Paso County agency.

Bakes-Martin presented a gloomy picture to a group of 100 elected officials and business leaders this month.

El Paso County commissioners have heard Bakes-Martin's lament before.

"I've been telling them for a couple of years," she said.

Dr. Mark Johnson, Bakes-Martin's counterpart in Jefferson County, said his agency has suffered cuts, but "it is not nearly as draconian as in El Paso County."

In Jefferson County, which has a comparable population, the health department has lost just one fulltime position since 2004. Johnson said they're managing to do one inspection a year in each restaurant; state guidelines call for two. In El Paso County, some are not getting inspected at all.

Per capita spending by the health department here is $6.40. In Jeffco, it's $11.95.

This is serious. We're not talking about the paper clip supply. When someone contracts tuberculosis, the department needs to do an aggressive follow-up investigation as soon as possible to find out if anyone else is infected.

It takes money to pay people to contact those who might be infected. In a case last year, 17 people tested positive after 200 people were interviewed.

As the county budget shrivels, Bakes-Martin envisions merely sending letters to those exposed to an active TB case - hardly an adequate level of protection.

Whether it's a police department trying to put more boots on the ground or a county health department becoming less able to provide the most basic form of protection, our community seems more frayed at the edges than others.

This all may be cause for delirious celebrations for champions of limited government spending. They'd best make sure their delirium isn't actually being induced by West Nile virus.

Contact Noreen at 636-0363 or noreen@gazette.com. He appears every other Friday on KOAA's Comcast Channel 9 at 4 p.m.