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September 21. 2012 12:47AM
Toumpas says budget cuts may have role in hepatitis response
CONCORD — The state’s health and human services commissioner says budget cuts have “certainly impacted” his department, but he could not “draw a straight line” and say those cuts impaired its response to the hepatitis C outbreak at Exeter Hospital earlier this year.
Nicholas Toumpas on Thursday told the New Hampshire Union Leader he was proud of his department’s response to what he called a complex and unprecedented crisis.
“I’d be less than candid if I said (funding cuts) did not have some impact on our overall response, but we mobilized resources from a number of different areas,” Toumpas said.
In a debate on Wednesday, Republican candidate for governor Ovide Lamontagne said it appeared the department was “caught flat-footed” by the outbreak, in communication “if nothing else, and that’s unacceptable.”
Democratic candidate Maggie Hassan then suggested cuts imposed on HHS by the Republican-led Legislature may have hindered the state and hospital’s response. (See related editorial, A8)
“It’s easy to criticize state workers and health care facilities,” Hassan said, “but if they are not resourced at a level that allows them to do their job, we all bear some of the responsibility for that.”
Lamontagne called her charge “reckless” and said “there’s no suggestion that (HHS) was flat-footed or late” because it was underfunded.
Hassan responded, “It is reckless for anyone to suggest that you can just keep cutting with no consequences to our entire health care system.”
Toumpas said he did not want to debate either candidate because he will have to work with one of them beginning in January.
But he said the funding cuts “have certainly impacted the department on a number of different levels.”
He said 473 positions were abolished in the current budget. There are also more than 250 vacant posts “across the board in the department.”
The public health division of the department is “largely federally funded, and there have been reductions there as well,” Toumpas said.
“But I’m not sure I can draw a straight line (from the response to the outbreak) to those changes,” he said.
The cuts “certainly didn’t affect the people who were doing the investigation,” Toumpas said. “There may have been some things that we had to leave undone, not related to the investigation — responsibilities that people had in other areas that had to be parked for a while as we responded. We are continuing to respond because it clearly is not over.”
Regarding the suggestion that the department was “flat-footed,” Toumpas said, “What we were dealing with was unprecedented.
“We were doing the testing and then determining that there was an employee (of the hospital) involved, and doing further testing, and then turning that over to the U.S. Attorney.
“It was just an extraordinary set of circumstances that we couldn’t look across the country and say that there was a template” to address it.
“I frankly am proud of the work that our people did,” Toumpas said. “It was remarkable.”
While the cases were first reported by the hospital, “it was our people that went in and did the investigation, mapped out what had happened, came up with the theory in terms of what was happening and then did the additional testing that uncovered 33 people who were linked to the same outbreak.
“It’s about as complex an issue as we’ve dealt with,” he said. He said the staff has shown “a remarkable degree of integrity and professionalism.”
Cuts this year and in the recent past have affected a variety of HHS programs, he said.
“We’ve cut out a big part of the CHINS (Children In Need of Services) program. We cut certain supports for seniors. We cut out the Alzheimer’s support program. We closed another wing in the New Hampshire Hospital. We privatized a program at the New Hampshire Hospital.”
Toumpas said that soon after he became commissioner in 2007, “the economy turned south and we’ve been challenged. We’ve lived within our means, but we’ve had not only whatever we were given for a budget, but then we had executive orders and other things we needed to cover.
“Everything is cumulative,” said Toumpas. But, he added, “I can’t say that this particular reduction impacted public health or any one of these other areas as black and white as the question suggests.”
As for the candidates, he said, “I try to stay out of it. I respect them both. I need to work with everybody.”
John DiStaso may be reached at jdistaso@unionleader.com.
Nicholas Toumpas on Thursday told the New Hampshire Union Leader he was proud of his department’s response to what he called a complex and unprecedented crisis.
“I’d be less than candid if I said (funding cuts) did not have some impact on our overall response, but we mobilized resources from a number of different areas,” Toumpas said.
In a debate on Wednesday, Republican candidate for governor Ovide Lamontagne said it appeared the department was “caught flat-footed” by the outbreak, in communication “if nothing else, and that’s unacceptable.”
Democratic candidate Maggie Hassan then suggested cuts imposed on HHS by the Republican-led Legislature may have hindered the state and hospital’s response. (See related editorial, A8)
“It’s easy to criticize state workers and health care facilities,” Hassan said, “but if they are not resourced at a level that allows them to do their job, we all bear some of the responsibility for that.”
Lamontagne called her charge “reckless” and said “there’s no suggestion that (HHS) was flat-footed or late” because it was underfunded.
Hassan responded, “It is reckless for anyone to suggest that you can just keep cutting with no consequences to our entire health care system.”
Toumpas said he did not want to debate either candidate because he will have to work with one of them beginning in January.
But he said the funding cuts “have certainly impacted the department on a number of different levels.”
He said 473 positions were abolished in the current budget. There are also more than 250 vacant posts “across the board in the department.”
The public health division of the department is “largely federally funded, and there have been reductions there as well,” Toumpas said.
“But I’m not sure I can draw a straight line (from the response to the outbreak) to those changes,” he said.
The cuts “certainly didn’t affect the people who were doing the investigation,” Toumpas said. “There may have been some things that we had to leave undone, not related to the investigation — responsibilities that people had in other areas that had to be parked for a while as we responded. We are continuing to respond because it clearly is not over.”
Regarding the suggestion that the department was “flat-footed,” Toumpas said, “What we were dealing with was unprecedented.
“We were doing the testing and then determining that there was an employee (of the hospital) involved, and doing further testing, and then turning that over to the U.S. Attorney.
“It was just an extraordinary set of circumstances that we couldn’t look across the country and say that there was a template” to address it.
“I frankly am proud of the work that our people did,” Toumpas said. “It was remarkable.”
While the cases were first reported by the hospital, “it was our people that went in and did the investigation, mapped out what had happened, came up with the theory in terms of what was happening and then did the additional testing that uncovered 33 people who were linked to the same outbreak.
“It’s about as complex an issue as we’ve dealt with,” he said. He said the staff has shown “a remarkable degree of integrity and professionalism.”
Cuts this year and in the recent past have affected a variety of HHS programs, he said.
“We’ve cut out a big part of the CHINS (Children In Need of Services) program. We cut certain supports for seniors. We cut out the Alzheimer’s support program. We closed another wing in the New Hampshire Hospital. We privatized a program at the New Hampshire Hospital.”
Toumpas said that soon after he became commissioner in 2007, “the economy turned south and we’ve been challenged. We’ve lived within our means, but we’ve had not only whatever we were given for a budget, but then we had executive orders and other things we needed to cover.
“Everything is cumulative,” said Toumpas. But, he added, “I can’t say that this particular reduction impacted public health or any one of these other areas as black and white as the question suggests.”
As for the candidates, he said, “I try to stay out of it. I respect them both. I need to work with everybody.”
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John DiStaso may be reached at jdistaso@unionleader.com.
