The School District of Philadelphia is considering outsourcing its school health services, a move that could have an impact on unionized school nurses.

The district has issued a request for proposals this week for private providers who want to take over medical services in Philadelphia’s public schools. June 10 is the deadline for proposals.

“We face a number of cuts in our schools regarding health care services, primarily the number of nurses which have declined from 283 to 183 this school year. This means that we have a number of schools that do not have a full-time nurse,” said district spokesperson Fernando Gallard.

Gallard said any new proposal must not cost more than what the district is currently paying to provide medical services to students — approximately $23.7 million.

“So the question on the table is how can we better use those dollars? Is there any other way to use those dollars that will increase the number of services that we provide our students? It’s not an issue of savings, it’s an issue of providing more services to students,” Gallard said.

The district issued a request for proposals asking for companies to provide “evidence-based, bold and innovative ideas.”

The document said vendors could offer a comprehensive, school-based health center that would provide a combination of primary care, mental and behavioral health care, substance health care, substance abuse counseling, case management, dental health, nutrition education and health education; a solution for comprehensive primary care in schools; handle staffing services; provide a mix of vendor-based staffing solutions and school-based health centers; and manage billing to maximize reimbursements for health services already provided in schools.

Gallard said it’s early to tell exactly how this process will impact school nurses.

Officials from the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, which represents school nurses, referred to the district’s move as “shortsighted.”

“With over 26 percent of our city’s families living in poverty, the school nurse is the only medical professional many children see for health care. The district should not attempt to save revenue on the backs of poor students. They should instead be hiring more nurses to serve our children,” PFT President Jerry Jordan said. “The move to privatize school nursing services is a shortsighted, Band-Aid solution. To be a certified school nurse requires very specific training and qualifications that you cannot simply ‘contract out.’ Worse the RFP is an insult to Philadelphia’s certified school nurses, many of whom work in more than one school and do a heroic job of attending to the health needs of thousands of school children.

“In our protracted contract negotiations with the school district, they have repeatedly sought to eliminate all contract language related to school nurses. The PFT has consistently said ‘no’ to this demand. The PFT will never accept such an arrangement and will be pursuing every option available to stop the privatization of our public schools,” Jordan added.

Donna Cooper, directora ejecutiva de Ciudadanos públicos para niños y jóvenes, a youth advocacy organization, is in favor of expanding health care services to students.

“My view is if a vendor can step forward and deliver more health care in a reliable way and it’s high quality, it’s worth having the conversation because our children have extraordinary healthcare needs and schools are a terrific setting to deliver those health care needs in,” Cooper said. “There may be more creative ways to get healthcare services into the buildings and we need people to step forward and share those ideas on how to do that.

“The way the district’s document is written — it’s looking for individuals to step forward and augment the health care services, either by keeping the school nurses there and building around them so it’s not a lock, stock and barrel assumption that people are getting rid of school nurses in this,” Cooper said.

The Philadelphia Tribune – May 16, 2015 – Leer artículo en línea