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UID:Indybay-80213
SEQUENCE:80213
CREATED:20051106T221100Z
DESCRIPTION:Protect Laguna Honda Hospital for Seniors and the Disabled.  Come to a Noon 
 Rally and Supervisor's Hearing on the Future of Laguna Honda  Monday, Nov. 
 14, City Hall  Noon: SEIU 790 Rally on City Hall Steps  1 PM: Supervisors 
 Hearing in Room 263, or Main Chamber if enough people come.  There is an 
 urgent need for health workers, City residents, and advocates for seniors 
 and disabled to protect Laguna Honda Hospital by coming to a rally and a 
 Supervisors' hearing on Monday, November 14.  The City is considering a 
 plan to rebuild Laguna Honda Hospital with almost one-third fewer beds, and 
 turn many of the remaining beds over to patients with behavioral and social 
 problems who are discharged from San Francisco General Hospital when their 
 state funding runs out.  DPH's own data shows that by 2020 San Francisco 
 will lack over 1,000 affordable nursing home beds for seniors and disabled 
 people, even if Laguna Honda is rebuilt at its current capacity of 1,200 
 beds and determined efforts are made to also build much-needed  alternative 
 community-based long-term care.   If alternative long-term care is not 
 built, the need for Laguna Honda beds will be even more severe.  On Nov 14, 
 the Supervisors' Government Audit and Oversight Committee will consider a 
 July 2005 audit by Health Management Associates, which the Health 
 Department requested.  In addition to plans for downsizing Laguna Honda and 
 shifting the patient population away from the elderly, frail, and disabled, 
 the audit calls for (1) merging Laguna Honda and San Francisco General into 
 a single entity with a single license and using Laguna Honda for “hard to 
 place” patients with “special needs,” instead of the traditional 
 population, and (2)  using private nursing homes and Alameda and San Mateo 
 County facilities to meet San Francisco's nursing home needs.  Questions of 
 whether the City is trying to divest itself of long-term care 
 responsibilities have been increased by the sudden announcement of a 
 Supervisors’ hearing on San Francisco’s long-term care infrastructure 
 at 1 PM, Thursday, Nov. 10 in the Main Chamber. Advocates are also urged to 
 attend this hearing.  The City cannot solve its financial and health 
 problems by taking from some people and promising to give to others.  Cuts 
 in City and private facilities and programs for the mentally ill, the 
 homeless, and substance abusers, coupled with financial pressures on SF 
 General and the derailing of the Mental Health Rehab Facility have created 
 a crisis which the City is trying to solve by taking nursing home care from 
 the elderly and disabled.  We can see the results in the City's earlier 
 moves to force mentally ill and other inappropriate SF General Hospital 
 patients into Laguna Honda over doctors' objections.  There were attacks 
 and injuries to other patients and staff, and numerous citations by 
 government agencies that endangered Laguna Honda's certification. Moreover, 
 Laguna Honda was not available to San Francisco residents who needed it.  
 San Francisco is one of the richest cities in the country.  It can, and 
 must, provide elders and disabled with long-term care in nursing homes and 
 in the community, as well as providing services for the mentally ill, 
 homeless people, and substance abusers.  Michael Lyon  SF Gray Panthers\n 
 https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2005/11/06/80213.php
SUMMARY:Protect Laguna Honda for Seniors and Disabled
LOCATION:
URL:https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2005/11/06/80213.php
DTSTART:20051114T200000Z
DTEND:20051114T210000Z
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