Duke City Indians Face Health Care Crisis

By Pamela G. Dempsey
Diné Bureau Correspondent

WINDOW ROCK, NM -- The some 40,000 Urban Native Americans living in Albuquerque will face further health care shortages if the Albuquerque Service Unit does not receive the $5 million it needs to make up this year's funding shortage.

This includes the more than 18,000 Navajo residents of Albuquerque and Bernalillo County.

"The worst case scenario is, with no additional funding, we'll be down to at least two physicians, working Monday through Friday," said Maria Rickert, acting chief executive officer for the Albuquerque Service Unit.

Six pueblos and tribes, under the service unit, receive contract health care funding under the Indian Self-Determination Act.

Because funding is divided among the contracted tribes, little or no health care dollars remain for those who are not part of those tribes. The urban Native Americans not members of the pueblos and tribes are served by the Albuquerque Service Unit.

IHS Director, Dr. Charles Grim

The users have increased, Rickert said, and topped 25,000 in 2004.

Rickert said that jobs and, subsequently, services are already on the chopping block.

By February, 40 positions are expected to be eliminated and a proposal to close the hospital's urgent care clinic and reduce services to appointment only is on the table. Three years ago, the Albuquerque Service Unit closed down its inpatient services.

"We're a huge, outpatient facility," Rickert said. "This is the third year we've run deficits. We can't keep doing this."

The decision now, Rickert said, may be to reduce personnel in order to get down to the facility's $5 million operating budget.