By Carol Reiter - Merced Sun-Star (Excerpt) Dr. Robert Gobbo sees the problems every day - pregnant women who have had no prenatal care, diabetics who have complications from their disease, and people addicted to drugs and alcohol.

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These problems aren’t unique to Merced County, but there are more of them here than in other counties in the state.

That’s the conclusion of a report done by the California Endowment in partnership with author Joel Diringer and the founders of the Central Valley Health Policy Institute at California State University, Fresno.

The report, “Health In the Heartland: The Crisis Continues,” was released earlier this week. And it verified what most health care professionals in the county already knew: Merced County’s health status is poor.

Gobbo, a family practice doctor who was seeing patients at Livingston Medical Group on Friday afternoon, said that he sees patients every day who are suffering from the effects of substance abuse, untreated diseases, and having either late prenatal care or none at all.

“So many patients here have no access to care,” Gobbo said.

Access to care was just one of the problems pointed out in the report. A higher number of patients in Merced County suffer from diabetes and asthma than the California state average.

The county also has the highest rate of deaths from breast cancer in the San Joaquin Valley, and a rate of teen pregnancy 27 percent higher than the state average.

These numbers are not news to John Volanti. The public health director for the county said that putting all the information together in one report gives it a powerful punch.

“This is not just a health department problem, it’s a community problem,” Volanti said.

The most significant finding in the report is the issue of access to health care providers for a majority of the county, according to Richard Rios, deputy public health director for the county.

Merced County has 30 percent fewer primary care physicians than the state average, and less than half the state average of medical specialists.

Rios said that the county and other health care professionals have agreed that there need to be meetings to address these problems. To view the entire article click here:
http://www.mercedsun-star.com/news/newsview.asp?c=99000 (Please note: May require subscription.)

Source: Merced Sun-Star