Health official: No response from IHS on proposed reductions

SHIPROCK

Navajo officials in the Northern Agency have been trying for months to get a response from the Indian Health Service about the makeup of a local health advisory committee.

David John, chairman of the Navajo Health Board, said the tribe was informed last year of plans to reduce the number of members of the health board for the Shiprock Agency Service Unit as part of a national program begun in 2011 to downsize health boards.

“We are opposed to any reduction,” said John, pointing out that the Shiprock board consists of representatives from all 22 chapters in the agency.

That number is important, he said, because the chapters want to talk to their own representatives when it comes to meeting their own health needs.

This has been the way it worked since the 1980s, he said, and it has been effective in meeting not only the needs of the community but the IHS as well.

The health board over the years has been effective in bringing up concerns from area residents about the health care in the area, said John.

When the planned reduction was announced last year, a number of agency health and political organizations passed resolutions opposing the plans.

This includes the Shiprock Agency Health Board itself, the Dzil-Na-O’Dithle Service Health Advisory Board, the Northern Navajo Agency Council, and various Navajo Nation Council committees.

All of them want the IHS to revisit the issue.

If it is a money issue, John said the meeting schedule for the health committee could be changed to having meetings on a bi-monthly or quarterly basis instead of monthly.

John said the groups opposing the downsizing are willing to work with the IHS to come to some solution that would be agreeable to all sides but so far, despite letters to the area office and to the national headquarters in Maryland, there has been no response from anyone in the IHS.

“We have even sent certified letters and still have received no response,” John said.

Neither the Navajo Area office nor the national office has issued any public statements on the matter as well.

This may be due in part because the Navajo Area has not had a permanent director for several months and many high ranking positions within the IHS are also vacant, waiting for President Donald Trump to make appointments.

But the IHS is not alone with this problem. All divisions within the federal government are dealing with unfilled positions waiting for Trump to make a decision on who he wants to fill these positions, according to the national media.

John said that because of the confusion the health board has not met officially since January but some members have met on their own on an unofficial basis.

“We don’t even know if we are a health board or not,” John said.

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