Birmingham, AL - Patricia Humes showed up at Cooper Green Hospital Tuesday morning for her regularly scheduled chemo treatment.  But she was turned away.  "I got there after 8:15 and was told that they couldn't see me today because the hours had been cut.  They said they could only see a certain number of people and they had taken in all they could see today."  Humes, who has been battling colon cancer for 2 years, then paid a personal visit to Commissioners William Bell and Shelia Smoot.  She said she had not had her treatment in four weeks and that when she misses rounds of the chemo her health is adversely affected.  "Physically I get fatigued and short winded.  I can walk out of my door to my car door and can't catch my breath." 

Commissioner William Bell, who oversees operations at Cooper Green, got Humes rescheduled for her treatment on Wednesday.  But he says problems like this may continue.  Bell says, "We are going to have to make adjustments. There is no way for the staff at Cooper Green to not work beyond 32 hours, and we're not allowed to hire extra people, and we have to meet all the needs of the people coming in. It's putting a strain on the system, but we are trying to accommodate however possible.  That's not to say we won't have glitches, but when we find out that people like Mrs. Humes are having problems, it's my responsibility to make sure we fill those gaps in."

On Tuesday, Commissioners also moved forward with plans to park most, if not all, county cars overnight.  Commissioner Bobby Humphryes says it should save about $250,000 a year.  "There are alot of things we have done that hasn't had a big impact on what we are doing, but little things add up, and that's what we are trying to do now."  Humphryes says he plans to ask the sheriff to ask his deputies to park their cars overnight unless they are on-call.  "In the crisis we are in, I would suggest he not let deputies drive their cars home at night and not drive them back and forth to work.  There are some that live outside the county.  That's just an issue we need to look at anyway.  We are trying to curb fuel consumption as much as we can and that's one way to do it." 

Commission President Bettye Fine Collins says additional cuts to services will be introduced Thursday.  It's likely the full commission will vote next Tuesday on those matters.

 

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