Supervisors approve $246,000 to keep workers’ compensation clinic at San Francisco General; debate over layoffs and privatization

San Francisco — The Board of Supervisors on March 11, 2008 approved on first reading an ordinance to appropriate $246,000 from the General Fund Reserve to the Human Resources Department to fund the workers’ compensation clinic at San Francisco General Hospital for fiscal year 2007–08.

Why it matters: The city identified this clinic as the only remaining public workers’ compensation clinic in San Francisco; the board heard testimony indicating the clinic’s continuation affects access to care for individuals without other providers and has budgetary implications for the hospital and city employment costs.

What the board decided

By roll call the ordinance passed on first reading. The transcript records the vote as 7 ayes and 3 nos. The clerk read votes for individual supervisors during the roll call. The ordinance will return for final reading as required by the board’s rules.

What supervisors and speakers said

A speaker on the item recounted two committee hearings on the clinic and urged preserving the public clinic, saying prior efforts had attempted to privatize or outsource services and that, if closed, staff layoffs would follow. The speaker said the city had provided pink slips to roughly 10 doctors and that severance obligations would require about 15 months of payments; those details were presented on the floor during debate and are recorded in the transcript. The speaker also asserted that no audit or metrics had been presented to justify cutting the clinic and that available evidence showed the clinic yielded net savings. The transcript does not provide a clear, unambiguous name for that extended floor statement; the remarks are recorded under the item’s discussion in the transcript but are not attributed cleanly to a single identified speaker name in the audio transcript segments.

Several supervisors voted in favor and others opposed; the roll call recorded individual ayes and nos. The board did not adopt any amendment to the ordinance during the March 11 session.

Implementation and follow up

If enacted at final reading, the appropriation will require Human Resources and the Department of Public Health/San Francisco General Hospital to administer the clinic funding. The transcript indicates the hospital and city administration had earlier planned staff reassignments that the speaker said did not occur; any personnel or severance decisions would be implemented under city human resources rules and subject to employment law. The exact administrative steps and timelines were not specified on the record and will depend on departmental implementation.

Provenance

Transcript discussion of Item 16 begins when the clerk announces the ordinance and continues through the roll call recorded later in the session; the long floor statement and the roll call are recorded in the public transcript.