Mayor Nancy Backus, City staff, and Diane Carlson of King County Executive Dow Constantine’s office toured Auburn’s imperiled King County Public Health Clinic on Monday.
The group saw several clients with newborns who receive nutrition from the Women, Infant’s and Children (WIC) program. The program gives women vouchers to get healthful food like fruits and vegetables, grains and dairy at a grocery store.
The group also learned that, per employee, the Auburn clinic is the most effective and efficient of any of its sister clinics in King County as far as family planning and maternity services are concerned.
“You know, 11,000 people visit that clinic every year, and what we heard today is that those people would not be receiving services for most part because those services would not be available at the Kent and Federal Way clinics,” Backus said.
Given that financial support from the state and federal governments has been on the decline over the last few years, King County has said it may close the clinic among others by the end of 2014.
The King County Council votes on its budget Nov. 15.
In the meantime, efforts to keep open the clinic open continue to pick up support.
On Monday the Auburn School District passed a resolution to support its staying open. Valley Regional Medical Center also has passed its own resolution.
The cities of Black Diamond and Enumclaw, which are in the service area of the clinic, have said they will support the clinic financially for the next two years.
Auburn officials are working with the Muckleshoot Tribe on financial support, and John Theisen, CEO of Orion Industries, is heading up a group of business owners working to keep the clinic open.
“I am very optimistic that we’ll be able to maintain our clinic. It’s not a done deal yet, but I’m very optimistic. We’ve been working really hard and gaining support from a lot of different jurisdictions,” Backus said.
On Thursday of last week, the King County Council had its budget hearing at the King County Regional Justice Center in Kent. Backus flanked by all seven members of the Auburn City Council, spoke on behalf of the clinic.
“We reminded the council that if it closed this clinic, there would be additional burden on our 911 system and that a visit to the clinic is far less expensive than a 911 call,” Backus said.
“I don’t think the King County Executive wants to see it closed. When you go into a budget, you start by looking simply at financial impacts, but you need to look at the social impacts as well. And sometimes the social bottom line is more important than the fiscal bottom line,” Backus said.
“… We all know that the preventive maintenance piece of anything is far less expensive than fixing it later,” Backus added.
