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Supervisors hear hours-long testimony as health officials defend plan to shift some psychiatric care to community sites
Summary
Supervisors held a prolonged hearing on a DPH proposal to reduce some inpatient psychiatric beds at San Francisco General and expand community urgent care and adult diversion units; health officials said services would not be eliminated until community alternatives were operating, while clinicians and advocates warned closing beds first risks patient and public safety.
San Francisco In an hours-long Finance Committee hearing, supervisors and dozens of witnesses pressed health officials over a Department of Public Health plan that would reduce a portion of locked inpatient psychiatric beds at San Francisco General Hospital and expand community-based alternatives run by nonprofits.
"It was very troubling to me that this issue was advanced without, I think, the kind of deliberation and vetting that I think it required," Supervisor Ross Mercarimi said, opening the hearing and asking DPH director Mitch Katz to explain the department's timeline and safeguards.
Dr. Mitch Katz told the committee the departmentand its clinical partnersaim to provide a 1:1 substitution of services, not a net reduction. "We will not decrease any psychiatric emergency services or any inpatient services until the urgent…
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