WATCH leaders ask for reconsideration
By Steve Herring
Published in News on July 20, 2016 1:46 PM
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News-Argus/STEVE HERRING
WATCH board chairman Sam Hunter asks county commissioners to reconsider their funding of the program.
Dr. Clark Gaither has expressed frustration with Wayne County commissioners whom he said continue to ask questions that have been answered and for information that already has been supplied several times over -- all at the expense of public health.
Gaither, medical director for WATCH (Action Teams for Community Health), made his comments following a failed attempt by three commissioners Tuesday morning to restore $35,000 cut from the free health care clinic's budget.
"The commissioners who voted 'no' today in effect said that the health care of the citizens of Wayne County is not a priority for them right now," Gaither told The News-Argus. "They know all of this (information).
"We have gone over this countless times, yet there seems to be some mystery as to how this operates. This morning they hurled a bunch of notions at me that have no basis in fact."
Gaither said he had called out Commissioners Ed Cromartie Bill Pate and John Bell by name during Tuesday's board meeting for voting against the funding.
Chairman Joe Daughtery, who also voted against the additional funding, did not attend the meeting.
The cut will force a reduction in the number of hours WATCH will be able to operate its mobile clinic, Gaither said.
Gaither was one of five speakers who appeared before commissioners during the public comments section of Tuesday's commission meeting.
They all thanked the board for past funding and said that they have tried to ensure it was put to the best use possible. They asked as well that the board consider reinstating the funds.
However, some commissioners continued to voice concerns about ongoing negotiations between the county and Wayne Memorial Hospital over indigent care arguing that should be resolved first.
WATCH funding and the negotiations between the county and hospital are separate issues, Gaither said.
They also questioned what controls are in place to prevent abuse by people who can afford to pay for health care.
Gaither said all of those concerns have been previously addressed.
After the speakers concluded their remarks, Commissioner Ray Mayo made the motion to restore the $35,000 cut from the WATCH budget, but Bell offered an amendment to table any action.
Both the amendment and motion failed by 3-3 votes. Bell, Pate and Cromartie voted for Bell's amendment while Joe Gurley, Mayo and Wayne Aycock voted no.
Gurley, Mayo and Aycock voted yes on Mayo's original motion with Pate, Bell and Cromartie voting no.
"I am going to call out Dr. Gaither like he called me out," Bell said as the meeting was winding down. "He is going to have to learn that he doesn't come up and attack a voting commissioner because he made me vote against that (funding). I was all ready to go until he wanted to make me look bad in the public.
"I take issue with that. I am for the WATCH van, too, that is why I put the motion on the floor to table it until the next meeting to give us a little breathing room."
Speaker Cathy Johnson said she had been with WATCH since its start and had seen the difference it has made in people's lives.
"We have diagnosed cancer, diabetes, hypertension, and we have been able to control these preventing strokes, heart attacks and deaths.
"Yes, people can go to the emergency room for care, but the ER is not the place for colds, sore throats, urinary tract infections or the management of chronic diseases. Neither is the Health Department."
WATCH board member Susan McCall said the $110,000 budgeted by the county represents a "mere" 10 percent of WATCH's $1 million budget.
"That $1 million doesn't include the value of the $2.8 million in free medicines and $600,000 in lab tests that are donated each year because it is a free clinic," she said. "The remaining 90 percent of the budget is provided through grant and donations. Without local government support those grants would be in jeopardy.
"There has been a misconception by some of you that a grant opportunity was missed because paperwork wasn't filled out. The truth of the matter is the grant wasn't perused because it would have violated the terms of other, larger grants that had been awarded."
It is a free clinic for people who cannot afford insurance coverage for primary care, she said. Clients are screened to make that determination Mrs. McCall said.
Gaither reminded the board that the agency's budget request of $220,000 was cut to $110,000.
Following budget workshops, the board voted 5-2 in June to increase the funding to $145,000. Bell, Cromartie, Gurley, Aycock and Mayo voted for the increase.
But less than two weeks later in his motion to approve the budget, Pate included reducing the amount to $110,000.
Bell and Cromartie switched and voted with Pate and Daughtery to cut the amount back to $110,000.
The cut puts some of WATCH's other funds in jeopardy, Gaither told commissioners.
"Mr. Pate, Mr. Bell, Mr. Cromartie do you really want to send the message to your constituents that they don't matter, that it is not an important service?" Gaither said. "Eighty percent of the people we see on the unit have jobs. They buy goods and services in this county. They pay taxes.
"This is not a hole you throw money into. It is money that circulates, that comes back to you. We provide a valuable service to those people."
Sissy Lee Elmore, WATCH executive director, said all grants expect something more.
"You cannot get a grant while remaining at the same level of outcomes you are," she said.
For example, a $150,000 Community Health grant for three years says WATCH will accept 420 new patients in 2016 and 2017 and increase the number of patient visits from 865 to 1,000, she said.
If the mobile unit is cut back, WATCH will not be able to accept as many patients thereby putting other grants at risk, she said.
"All of the grants hinge on one another," she said. "When you make changes in one grant, it changes another grant. We could lose some other grants based on what happens with this one (county funding)."
WATCH board Chairman Sam Hunter, CEO of T.A. Loving, said the hospital's emergency department is not a "medical home."
That is a need that WATCH can fill for a lot of the county's residents, he said.
Hunter said those who operate WATCH have to keep a lot of records and are held accountable.
Hunter said T.A. Loving tries to be a good corporate citizen and is often asked for money by many organizations.
"It is easy for us to choose to fund WATCH," he said. "I know the value. I can look at their 8-to-1 return on my dollars that I commit to WATCH. Over the last eight years, T.A. Loving has given $31,000 to WATCH."
Financially, not all is well at WATCH, he said. Blue Cross Blue Shield had been giving $40,000 to $50,000 a year, but is no longer funding free clinics, he said.
Golden LEAF is also cutting its grant to WATCH by some $60,000, he said.
WATCH had to delve into its reserves to the tune of $197,000 last year because of the cuts, Hunter said.