The 'new' Public Health: will it be the 'same Ole'?

Karesha Berkeley Laing
Institutional Review Board Coordinator
Georgia Department of Community Health
2 Peachtree Street, NW, 15-248 Atlanta, GA 30303

October 17, 2010

Dear Ms. Laing:

In lieu of addressing the Public Health Commission, please submit this letter and my attached comments to the Commission for its consideration. I understand that the Public Health Commission is charged with examining whether the interests of this state are best served with the Division of Public Health being a part of the Department of Community Health, an attached agency, an independent agency, or as part of another organizational structure to be determined by the Commission. My professional opinion is that it will not matter where the Division of Public Health is located if they continue to be an agency unresponsive to the needs of the people of Georgia.

For more than ten years, I was the nurse-manager of a public health clinic and also served on state and local district protocol committees. During that time period, I documented multiple alarming problems [many of the documents of my book in progress are posted at http://alturl.com/rphvt]. . . After I was fired for talking about these problems, I have continued to document the desperate attempts of our uninsured women to obtain health care in our public health departments. . . .“to date, the health of the women of Georgia remains in critical condition. It is very difficult for our uninsured women who are most at risk to get a pap smear, get follow-up for an abnormal pap smear, get contraceptives or get STD testing when it is needed. Despite massive documentation, not one member of Georgia public health or the Georgia Governor’s office has attempted to investigate the internal complaints regarding the mismanagement of public health on either the district or state level.”
. . .

Sincerely,

Marilyn Ringstaff

Georgia is a state that has so neglected the health care of its women
and ignored the problems among our youth that the state has bottomed out
on almost all major health indicators for these populations.

Marilyn Ringstaff,

in a direct quote to the Floyd County Board of Health, 3/13/08

CC: to the Public Health Commission via Certified Mail