West Texas Regional Poison Center In Danger Of Closing
The West Texas Regional Poison Center on UMC’s campus is one of the most affordable and accessible forms of healthcare in the borderland. Even though they answer to almost 1.5 million people in need of medical care, they’re in danger of shutting down for good.
Texas lawmakers are working on a House bill that would close all but one of the state’s six poison control centers.
“It would be a travesty (if the West Texas Regional Poison Center shut down),” said Director Leo Artalejo. “How do we provide for the regional needs? It’s almost like saying that one fire department for the whole state’s gonna do it.”
State representative Dee Margo said he and other representatives from El Paso are speaking to the one of the bill’s authors, Representative Linda Harper-Brown from Dallas, about the importance of El Paso’s poison center.
“What representative Harper-Brown said is that they’re still in discussion, nothing had been finalized and that there was a possibility that for budget considerations, if they didn’t consolidate to one (poison center), they might consolidate to three,” said Margo. “Everything’s related to dollars right now in Austin.”
The West Texas Regional Poison Center is the only fully bilingual, 24-hour poison center in the state. Artalejo said that closing it down would adversely affect healthcare quality in the borderland because the poison center diverts people from overcrowded emergency rooms and doctor’s offices. He said 7 out of 8 callers are safely treated for their ailments at home through the center’s staff of registered nurses, pharmacists and physicians.
The proposed bill could be up for a vote as early as next month. Even if UMC’s poison center stays open, however, federal budget cuts could put a huge strain on operations.
