This is a case of negligence to the point of cruelty: The District’s only public psychiatric hospital, St. Elizabeths, has been operating without running water since last week.
Let this sink in.
St. Elizabeths, currently serving 273 patients, takes in people with the most serious and persistent mental illnesses who need intensive inpatient care. It’s where the courts commit people for mental-health evaluations and care.
It is now where the water supply is contaminated with pseudomonas and legionella bacteria.
This isn’t the first time such a water crisis has occurred, City Paper noted.
Three years ago, it said, St. Elizabeths had to cut off its water after a pipe ruptured, contaminating the supply. Patients couldn’t wash their hands from the faucets for five days. They couldn’t drink out of the taps for six days.
Adam Kushner, a surgeon who has studied hospitals in developing countries, told City Paper that when patients and staff are not able to keep themselves or the linens as clean as usual, it can lead to hospital-contracted infections. One such infection, MRSA, killed 20,000 people in the United States in 2017.
“Not having any running water is horrible. Can anyone imagine Johns Hopkins or Mass General not having water?” Kushner told City Paper. “Maybe for a day. But then it happening again? It just wouldn’t happen.”
But it happened in the District. And it’s going to happen again, because the problem isn’t being permanently fixed. That’s neglect. When the victims are some of the most dependent people in our society — people with mental illness — it’s cruel.
It simply doesn’t have to be this way.
The city can’t cry poor-mouth, pleading a lack of money as a defense for allowing this outrageous condition to exist.
It’s not a lack of cash; it’s lack of concern and compassion.
The city has the money.
Here’s how I know.
The D.C. public school system, because of poor management and internal controls, found itself facing a $23 million budget shortfall earlier in the year. School leaders said not to worry because they planned to end the fiscal year with a balanced budget.
That promise was as off the mark as the budget projections that officials asked the D.C. Council to approve. With the fiscal year ending on Sept. 30, the school’s budget hole stood at $10.1 million.
To balance the budget, Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) robbed Peter to pay Paul. Aided by the city’s chief financial officer, Jeffrey S. Dewitt, Bowser shifted funds to the school system from other city agencies.
Oh, the District’s got money. Enough money to fix St. Elizabeths’ pipes, to keep bacteria out of the hospital’s water supply.
Patients are distressed because there’s no running water to wash their hands after using the bathroom; miserable not being able to use the showers. But they have to wait while, as Jones told City Paper, St. Elizabeths works “with D.C. Water and D.C. Health to evaluate options and solutions.”
To hell with that. Fix the damn problem.
The District has the money to do it.
How do I know? The mayor told me so.
It’s right there in a “Letter from the Mayor” dated Oct. 3.
Bowser said with the start of the new fiscal year on Oct. 1, she is going to spend “$2.5 million to ensure every resident is counted in the 2020 Census.” Money is going to be distributed to a select number of community groups to get the word out. Cynics might call it “walkin’ around money.” But I’m not a cynic.
She said she is also going to shell out $2.5 million for the Immigrant Justice Legal Services grant program to help fend off anti-immigration forces.
Money, we got.
Enough, according to Bowser, to spend “$4.7 million for hiring a new bike lane parking enforcement team and other improvements as part of Vision Zero” — a plan to shore up pedestrian and bicycle transportation safety.
As for making and keeping St. Elizabeths’ water permanently safe — well, the vulnerable and dependent patients are just going to have to wait until the city finishes evaluating “options and solutions.”
Neglect to the point of cruelty.
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