HOSPITAL SERVICES SEVERELY CUT SHORTFALL FORCES CLINICS' CLOSINGS.

Byline: Troy Anderson Staff Writer

In the first of many cuts that could cripple Los Angeles County's health care system, the Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to reduce in-patient services at High Desert Hospital in Lancaster and close four health clinics.

The cuts, expected to save the county $972,000 annually, include closing the clinics in Burbank and North Hills, which serve an average total of 1,080 people a month. Facilities in Compton and Paramount also will be shut down, on or after May 1.

The cuts are the first as the county Department of Health Services struggles to eliminate a deficit that is expected to grow from $365 million in the next 18 months to $688 million by 2005 after $2.2 billion in federal bailout funds dries up.

``The old way of doing business - hoping someone will come and bail us out if we sit and do nothing - won't do it this time,'' board Chairman Zev Yaroslavsky said.

``There is a feeling that it's a lot easier to sit back and if something happens, we'll just blame the governor. We have a lot of blame to go around here. We've been bailed out twice by the federal government. The last time they gave us some pretty specific instructions on what we are supposed to do. If we don't turn this battleship around, we'll be rightly criticized.''

Dr. Thomas L. Garthwaite, the newly hired director of the Health Department, said a series of management consolidations in hospitals, drug and inventory and consultant efficiencies have already saved the $2.9 billion department $80 million annually.

Supervisor Gloria Molina said Garthwaite's budget request for fiscal 2002 will have to include up to $100 million in cuts.

In January, the Health Department released a plan to cut services to the area's 3.2 million poor and uninsured people. It included a series of harsh alternatives that could leave many people with medical treatment only in life-and-death situations.

Options range from closing county hospitals and clinics and privatizing the system to keeping some hospitals open as trauma, emergency room and acute care facilities.

Dozens of people, mostly from the Antelope Valley, attended Tuesday's meeting. They protested plans to transfer patients from the rehabilitation center at High Desert Hospital to a facility in Downey.

``I want you to know that if you are thinking about closing High Desert Hospital that will put the whole Antelope Valley into a tailspin we will not be able to stop,'' said the Rev. Henry Hearns, vice mayor of Lancaster.

Annelle Grajeda, general manager of Service Employees International Union Local 660, said there is no way to cut $700 million from the department's budget without drastically reducing health services and severely damaging the county's medical safety net.

``Polling shows the lack of accessible health care for the uninsured is a strong and widespread concern among California voters,'' Grajeda said. ``We believe the voters of Los Angeles County will support new revenues for our public health care system, which stands as the last line of defense against bioterrorism and the heart of the trauma care system.''