CLOSURES PUT BURDEN ON UNINSURED.

Byline: Susan Abram Staff Writer

BURBANK - Elva Edwards has come to the Burbank Health Clinic for the last 13 years.

She was pregnant with her oldest daughter when she first visited the popular center on Magnolia Boulevard and on Friday, she brought her youngest daughter, 5-year-old Sarah, in for a vaccination shot, a requirement to attend school.

Edwards said the clinic is so close to her Burbank home that she and her children can ride their bicycles there.

But come Sept. 30, the 50-year-old clinic that serves an estimated 6,600 patients, will be closed, its fate already approved in March by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors as one of the many cost-cutting measures to keep the county's health care system afloat.

``What will I do?'' Edwards asked in Spanish. ``I don't drive and for the uninsured, this is the only place that's close.''

To close a projected $800 million deficit by 2005-06, the county Department of Health Services will present more recommendations today to the Board of Supervisors to close an additional 11 county health centers and all school-based clinics.

If the board approves the plan, community-based clinics in North Hollywood and Tujunga would close by fall, while one in San Fernando may close by next year. School-based clinics at Kennedy High School in Granada Hills and at the Vaughn Next Century Learning Center also could close by the fall.

For Edwards and other uninsured residents who rely on ride-sharing, bicycles or public transportation, the eventual closure of nearby centers means they may have to visit local emergency rooms, which in recent years, have begun to provide more acute services to the uninsured who have nowhere else to go.

``We do anticipate an increase,'' said Dr. Philip Schwarzman, medical director of the emergency department at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank. ``We're very aware of it.''

Schwarzman said that unless these patients are treated for acute care early on with services they receive at clinics and centers, their illnesses can turn into serious problems.

``Transportation is going to be a big issue,'' said Ann Britt, president of the Valley Healthcare Center, a partner of the North Hollywood Health Center on Tujunga Avenue that is under consideration for closure.

The closures will ``leave a gap in primary care in the East Valley,'' Britt said.

At the Tujunga Health Center on Foothill Boulevard, a staff worker said patients have been asking for several days about the possible closure.

``A lot of patients have been coming in and asking what are they going to do,'' she said. ``This is the only place for them to go in the Sunland-Tujunga area.''

Plans for patients of the Burbank clinic include referring them to county facilities in Glendale and North Hollywood, as well as to public-private health partnerships in the area.

The 30 or so staffers at the Burbank clinic will be transferred to other facilities, but their new assignments have not yet been determined.

Dr. Elise Pomerance, the clinic's lead physician, said those plans are always changing as the Department of Health Services struggles to eliminate a $365 million deficit.

``These clinics are all at a standstill,'' she said. ``It's not good for us, and it's not good for the patients.''

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Photo:

Nurse Isabel Rodriguez prepares a vaccination for Sarah Edwards, 5, while her mother, Elva, holds her at the Burbank Health Clinic, which is scheduled to shut down Sept. 30 due to lack of funding from Los Angeles County.

Phil McCarten/Staff Photographer