City Council Orders Manager To Retract Health Station Cuts

The Cambridge City Council last night "ordered" City Manager John H. Corcoran to eliminate proposed budget cuts in the Neighborhood Health Station Program of the Cambridge City Hospital.

The Council's unanimous vote came in response to protests from the Neighborhood Health Station Crisis Coalition (NHSCC), a collection of 22 community groups whose representatives filled the Council chambers to voice their support for the existing program.

Since the City Charter stipulates that the City Manager has sole jurisdiction over the specific composition of the budget, last night's action was at best a strong recommendation.

There are now three health stations providing medical services for elderly and low-income residents in the city. The NHSCC has proposed that the present facilities be continued and that two new health stations be opened to serve people in the Riverside and Cambridgeport areas.

Severe Cutbacks

The NHSCC contends that the $75,000 allocated to the health station program in the proposed budget would result in severe cutbacks in the staffing of the existing centers and prevent the opening of the two new stations.

Doris Aubry, a leader of the NHSCC, said last night that if the budget for the health facilities was increased to $135,000, the city could expect to be reimbursed for all but $35,000 by Medicare, Blue Cross and other medical insurance companies.

Aubry said that the level of health care in the city's low-income neighborhoods is deteriorating as private physicians retire without being replaced. She charged that while there is one family doctor for every 700 residents of the city's upper-income areas, the corresponding ratio in the low-income sections is 1 to 7000.

The health station program was instituted two years ago by the Cambridge City Hospital to relieve pressure on its emergency room and out-patient clinics.