|
|
|
Health
 |
You already know that the new state budget means lots of cash for new prisons, $5.5 million in library cuts and $1.1 million in child care cuts. But what about everything else? In our new feature Budget Fuss, we'll be looking at lesser-reported casualties (and gains all two of them) in the state budget.
In this week's A Million Stories, I wrote about how the state budget eliminates much funding for free HIV tests, according to ACT UP Philadelphia, an HIV/AIDS activist group:
The new budget has slashed HIV prevention money statewide by $300,000 and that's on top of $1.7 million in cuts last year. ACT UP predicts this will lead to nearly 8,000 fewer Pennsylvanians receiving HIV tests annually. Hardest-hit will be the smaller organizations geared toward minorities and the homeless. Unless outside grants come in, these groups say, they'll have to eliminate their free HIV testing programs altogether.
Without free testing, activists fear that many Philadelphians won't know they have HIV until it's too late. "We're very successful in getting first-time testers. Without that money, a lot of people are going to fall through the cracks," says Ron Sy, executive director of AIDS Services in Asian Communities. "I'm terrified."
In order to save space, the actual organizations in Philadelphia that will be hit hardest didn't make it in the paper. But it's important to say which they are, I think: Positive Effect Outreach Ministry, AIDS Services in Asian Communities (ASIAC), Gay and Lesbian Latino AIDS Initiative (GALAEI) and Maternity Care Coalition, all smaller-sized groups. The reason they'll have to eliminate their HIV testing programs, they say, is because they have to redirect the money they've got to more pressing issues, like caring for people who've already tested HIV positive.
The four groups above say that, since they've been expecting the cuts, they've tried to apply for outside grants accordingly, but have yet to find out if most of them will come through.
Maternity Care Coalition also says that it may have to eliminate one of their six Philly MOMMobiles, traveling groups of advocates that provide HIV education, among other things.
Kim Phillips, of Positive Effect Outreach Ministry, says that getting rid of HIV testing will end work that's been years in the making.
"We target the homeless community, and do a lot of work in shelters building trust," she says. "There's an 'I'd rather not know, AIDS is a death sentence' attitude, so we have to educate. We're already down to the bare bones, and these cuts might crush us. I can't even wrap my head around the fact that we won't be able to get people tested."
That's the claim behind a new report authored by ACT UP Philadelphia. Here's a snippet from it:
The city spends money inefficiently (ware)housing people in shelters and then paying for their medical care, rather than providing housing through more cost-effective models. In addition, lack of stable housing increases the likelihood of engaging in high-risk behaviors, thus increasing the likelihood of being HIV-positive.
You can download the report in full here. The organization goes on to explain how other metropolises have saved money by spending more on housing for people with AIDS: "In New York City, 95 percent of the cost of providing supportive housing for people with AIDS was recouped through savings in emergency room visits and medical care," reads ACT UP's press release.
According to ACT UP, the waiting list for the city's housing subsidies for people with AIDS has grown in the past year, from 143 to 200 people.
Today at 1 p.m., ACT UP, Proyecto Sol and Philadelphia GAWD rallied outside of City Hall to publicize these findings.
In fact, more than 1,500 Temple Hospital staffers are striking today at noon.
So how does a hospital continue to run without them? According to Young Philly Politics, the hospital is hiring nurses from HealthSource Global Staffing at a cost of more than $10,000 for each RN per week. If true, that's an exorbitant amount of money.
Head over to YPP for a good summary and video and what's gone on thus far (including the rally we told you about last Friday), and keep your eye on this one, people. I have a feeling it's gonna get ugly.
RELATED: Temple nurses rally today outside of Temple Hospital
As a nurse of almost 10 years, I understand that working in an environment such as Temple's is very trying and difficult to say the least. While I cannot attest to the working conditions within Temple facilities. Through a friend that used to work at Temple however I have seen the payrates for RNs. I can say that hands down they are higher than at the other three facilities I have worked at within the city of Philadelphia. Granted a three fold increase in the cost of benefits is not appropriate. However, if the rates I saw were correct the salary Temple RNS receive should in no way doom them to living in the neighborhood behind the hospital. Given the nature of Temple(neighborhood, clientele etc) though a higher payrate seems appropriate due to the occupational risks Temple RNS are exposed to that most of the nursing world will never experience.
As a fellow RN I am embarrassed that they even qualify as professionals at TEmple. To walk out on their patients is a discgrace and they should have their licenses revoked. The pay and benefits is among teh best in teh city and yet they continue to comlaina dnbe oneof the laziest and worst nurses in teh area. I used to work there but after realizing that they brought teh profession down as low as they have I quit and worked where I reprtesented my self and did not pay someone to speak for me Temple nurses grow up
Are you kidding me? You must work in a much "posh" er place!!! You just have no idea. Either you have very little experience or you just have no clue because you haven't worked there. Our salary isn't even 1/2 of what the media is saying it is and they expect us to make 10,000 less a year and pay triple the benefits costs!!! No one can afford to work there unless they live behind the hospital and can walk to work. I just can't stand when people who aren't in a situation have to talk and don't know what they are talking about it. Let me tell you something...not one person on that picket line is selfish. It is selfish of you to comment on something like you know and you don't!!!!
suck it up temple nurses
I am a university hospital nurse and we are non-union. Our benefit pkg is fairly good but not as good as what Temple nurses are expecting. I agree that in todays hard times you should be glad to have a job. Not only do they have a job, it comes with benefits and excellent pay compared to the average joe. The fact of the matter is you can be replaced. May brings a drove of new graduate nurses that will be more than happy to take your place. You complain about poor patient care yet you strike and make matters worse. If what really matters is the patients than get back to work and quit worrying about your selfish selves.
 |
| Christina M. Felice |
Back in 2002, we ran a cover story about silver fillings. That's what the dentists were calling them, anyway
No health organization will dispute that mercury is a toxin: It arguably ranks as the second-most-poisonous compound on earth, after plutonium. What Brockman and her husband, Dr. Vincent DiLorenzo, discovered, in the years spent running a practice near Chestnut Hill, was that mercury inside a dental office is treated squarely as an industrial material; yet dentistry, they argue, is one of the few industries that has not sought to eliminate mercury from its day-to-day procedures. While Mercurochrome is no longer used in hospitals to disinfect cuts, nor are thermometers filled with the metal, the same mercury is habitually mixed with other metals and placed inside the mouths of patients, in one of the most common dental treatments: a "silver" filling.
Scary, right? Thankfully, just last month, City Council approved a bill that forces dentists to give their patients brochures about "silver fillings" and have them sign waivers before putting the deadly compound in their mouths. It's a big step and Philadelphia is the first city to sign such a bill but anti-mercury activists still aren't happy. Dr. Hal Huggins, who's been speaking out against the fillings since the '80s, is coming to Philly this Saturday to address what still needs to be done eliminate the fillings altogether, he says. "What is the legal limit for mercury in fish? Point-five parts per million. A half of one part per million," says the doctor. "But in a filling, you have 500,000 parts per million and that's OK. Does this make sense?"
Sat., June 6, 1-3 p.m., free, The Philadelphian, 2401 Pennsylvania Ave., Social Room A, register by e-mailing aynomercury@aol.com.
- ActiVman
- adventures
- Arts
- Ask A Man-About-Town
- Award Tour
- Awards
- Bad Idea Factory
- Beer
- Below the Curve
- Bikes
- Booze
- Brian Hickey
- BRT
- Budget
- Budget Fuss
- Business
- Casinos
- City Council
- City Hall
- CouncilMANIC
- CP Abroad
- CP in the Community
- Criminal Justice System
- Day Tripper
- Death and Taxes
- Delaware River
- Design
- DROP
- Drugs
- Dubious Distinction
- Elections
- End of Days
- Environment
- Fashion
- Film Fest
- Financial Meltdown
- FrackTrack
- Free Library
- Gambling
- Gay Stuff
- Get Lit
- Greenstorming
- guns
- Hall Monitor
- Health
- Health Care
- Hello, Kitty
- Holidays
- Ice Cubes
- Iggles
- Immigration
- In Memoriam
- Labor
- Lawsuits
- Letters
- LGBTQ
- Maps
- Marcellus Shale
- Media
- MMA
- Mummers
- Music
- MUST READ
- Mysterious Mysteries
- Nation
- News
- Non Sequitur
- Opinion
- PA politics 2010
- Parking Wars
- Parks and Recreation
- People Send Us This Stuff
- Philadelphia Police
- Philadelphia Union
- Philaphemera
- Philly From Scratch
- philly madness
- Photos
- Poverty
- PPA
- President Obama
- Print Edition
- Prisons
- Protest
- Readers Write
- Real Estate
- Rock Bottom
- Schools
- Science
- Screwing Philly
- SEPTA
- snow
- So Lush
- Soccer
- Sporting Life
- Sports Complex
- State Politicians
- State Politics
- Street Art
- Strike
- Stuff We Like
- Taxes
- Taxi Drivers
- Tech Fetish
- television
- The Budget Crisis
- The City Paper
- The CLOG
- The Human Condition
- The Mayor
- The Phightin Phils
- The World
- Things that make you go hm
- Tinfoil Hats Off
- Under the Table
- Under the Tables
- Urban Development
- Urban Planning
- urban wildlife
- Video Poker
- We Call Shenanigans
- Weather
- Web Junk
- Weekend Omnibus
- White House
- What We've Found
- Women's Issues
- Flyered Up!
- How 'Bout That Weather?
- it's always sunny in philadelphia
- Stu!
- Shopping
- get out
- 10-track mind
- ArtsFlash
- Bloggity
- Bruce Being Bruce
- Colleges
- Comedy
- Gigantic Surprises
- Hello Canary
- Hello Puppy
- errata
- get lost
- Inside The Fishbowl
- Library Closings
- Local Support
- Movies
- Murder
- Night Moves
- Recycling
- radio
- Scientology
- Sex
- Sixers
- Skeeze Police
- State Politicians Screwing Philly
- That's a cool stencil!
- Theater
- Things We See
- This Week
- This Week in Oates
- University City
- WIN
- What we don't heart
- trailer!
- what we heart
- Feeling Guilty
- Askadelphia.
- Broke in Philly
- Contest
- Dance
- Dear Paper Doll
- Do A Good Thing
- Education
- Film Fest Schism
- G20-20 Vision
- Goodbye
- Gossip
- Great American Heroes
- PATCO
- Pearl Jam Week
- Puppy
- Stars of the Photostream
- sustainability
- Lower Merion Webcam-Gate
- The Cycle
- Equality Forum
- Bureaucrat of the Week
- Animals
- ElectionEar
- Photostream
