Report Assails Skid Row Health Care

Los Angeles County is not meeting the health needs of the homeless on Skid Row where the incidence of AIDS and tuberculosis cases is increasing, a county grand jury committee concluded in a report distributed Tuesday.

“We find that the quality and availability of health care provided by Los Angeles County for a large segment of its population is inadequate and could turn into a major embarrassment for the county,” the grand jury’s Social and Human Services Committee stated in its report.

Help that the county Department of Health Services provides at the Weingart Center clinic on Skid Row is helpful primarily to people enrolled in an alcohol rehabilitation program. Medical services are available by appointment between 7:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. on weekdays, the committee found. The clinic assists walk-ins two hours each day.

To improve the situation, the committee recommended that the county’s current $100,000-a-year annual budget for Skid Row health services be substantially increased and that the health department operate a larger clinic at Weingart Center at least 16 hours a day six days a week. The clinic should test for communicable diseases and offer first-aid and transportation to hospitals for the critically ill.

Supervisors Peter F. Schabarum and Deane Dana said they had not seen the report and would not comment until they have had time to study it.