Advocates talk WATCH funding
By Steve Herring
Published in News on June 9, 2016 1:46 PM
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News-Argus/STEVE HERRING
Dr. Clark Gaither, right, Wayne Action Teams for Community Health medical director, asks Wayne County commissioners to restore full funding to the program during a Tuesday morning budget public hearing.
Murray Porter, who helped found WATCH, Tuesday morning told Wayne County commissioners he wasn't at their budget public hearing to fuss at them. But he did bring a warning.
"I want to let you know that without the funding we were getting, the $220,000 -- you cut us back about $110,000 -- we are going to run out of reserves," he said. "We are going to run out totally, probably by the end of 2019, which sounds like a long way off, but it is less than three years from now. We will be totally out of business.
"We are serving as many patients as we were, but we are going to begin going downhill. That is exactly what is going to happen. But, again you are doing your part, but just think about us."
Porter and Dr. Clark Gaither, WATCH (Wayne Action Teams for Community Health) medical director, were the only two speakers during the public hearing that lasted less than 10 minutes.
It will be at least another week before Porter and Gaither will know if they were successful in convincing commissioners to restore the funding.
Last June commissioners were ready to defund WATCH completely, but at the last minute voted unanimously instead to cut its funding request in half to $110,000.
But the funding came with a warning: WATCH should not count on future county assistance and should seek other funding sources.
The proposed $148,292,780 general fund budget reduces the tax rate from 66.50 to 66.35 cents per $100 of property value.
Two work sessions are planned before the board adopts the new budget later this month.
The first, at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, June 14, will focus on internal county departments. The second, at 1 p.m. on Wednesday, June 15, will look at funding for outside agencies including WATCH.
WATCH asked for $220,000 again this year, but County Manager George Wood recommended $110,000 in the budget.
"I want you to understand what that means to us," Gaither said. "A lot of our grants are commingled. We see a thousand patients a month between the mobile unit and the two free-standing clinics. If we don't continue to see a thousand patients a month, then some of those funds may be in jeopardy.
"The mobile unit accounts for a large portion of those number of patients that we see. We asked for $210,000 for five days of operation. I am asking now for a total of $165,000, in which case we can fund the mobile unit for three days one week, four days the next."
If the mobile unit doesn't go out, there are a lot of commissioners' constituents who won't get their Pap smears, needed medicine or breast exams, he said.
"They won't get the kind of health care that we have been providing," Gaither said. "It's something this county needs to do. I can't think of anything more important, (Chairman) Mr. (Joe) Daughtery, than the health care of the citizens of this county.
"We give a tremendous return on the investment. For every dollar that we get, we provide somewhere near $8 of medical care. So it is very cost effective. I am asking, please help us by funding our program."
Gaither said a representative of the Duke Endowment visited last week.
"He said if the county doesn't enthusiastically fund our operations, why should somebody outside the county fund our operations?" Gaither said. "He had a good point."
Gaither invited commissioners to visit the mobile unit and talk to the people who utilize its services.
"I think you will be impressed, not only by the facility that the citizens of this county enjoy, but the level of expertise that we provide in ongoing health care," he said. "I mean we are doing chronic disease management for the citizens of this county for free. So please reconsider and fund our mobile unit."
Porter said he was not asking for any more money that commissioners don't have to spend.
"But if you can find it in your hearts to help us like Dr. Gaither said, we can send the van out more often, and we help more patients," Porter said.
Porter said when he retired from the banking business 12 years ago that he decided to help WATCH and has spent all of his volunteer time doing so -- working for free to raise funds for WATCH.
"Every where we go the question is are the public bodies in Wayne County helping," he said. "The city is helping. You all are helping. You have done a tremendous job, and I can't thank you enough.
"You guys are just as responsible as we are for taking care of all these patients. As Dr. Gaither says, a thousand patients a month who don't have health insurance and just can't afford to take care of themselves. I give you credit, and I think everybody else in the county ought to give you credit, too."
A copy of the budget is available for public inspection in the clerk to the board's office on the fourth floor of the Wayne County Courthouse Annex and at the Wayne County Public Library at 1001 E. Ash St.
It is also posted online at the county's official website, www.waynegov.com.