Council approves interim funding and asks for staffing plan to sustain jail medical dispensaries
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Summary
The CAO and personnel briefed the committee on jail medical services after a reduction to the 'as-needed' account; members approved transferring funds to keep three medical dispensaries open this fiscal year and asked for coordinated budget proposals and interagency options to address staffing gaps.
The committee considered a CAO report on medical services at Los Angeles Police Department jail facilities on Feb. 12, 2026, and approved CAO recommendations as amended to reflect council instructions.
Kimberly Squire of the CAO’s office reported the as-needed account for FY25-26 was reduced by $1,570,000 (from $3.83 million to $2.26 million) as a one-time reduction. Projected year-end expenditures in the account total $4.1 million, with $2.8 million attributable to custody medical services. The CAO recommended transferring $980,000 to the Personnel Department salaries as-needed account to fund the city’s three medical dispensaries through the remainder of the fiscal year and submitted a FY26-27 budget request for two advanced practice providers and one correctional nurse.
Malika Billups, General Manager of the Personnel Department, explained the operational impacts of lost full-time staff. She described reliance on per-diem staff and said losing advanced practice providers and a managing physician “decimated our ability to maintain and keep the doors open for the care teams.” Billups and other staff said the departments need interim as-needed funding and full-time positions in the next fiscal year to stabilize 24/7 coverage.
Council members urged exploring interagency solutions. One member recommended coordinating with the county’s multidisciplinary teams (MDTs) and the Los Angeles Fire Department’s advanced practice responder units (APRUs) to co-locate services or deploy APRUs as a stopgap to mitigate staffing shortfalls. The chair accepted these instructions as part of the order of the day and the committee voted to adopt the CAO recommendations as amended; roll call recorded affirmative votes and the matter was approved as amended.
The committee directed staff to incorporate the interagency coordination suggestions into forthcoming budget proposals and to return with staffing and budget details as part of the FY26-27 process.