CITY COUNCIL APRIL 28 

Mayor Joe Petty  0:04  
Go ahead. Council Rosen

Speaker 1  0:05  
thank you,

COUNCILOR GARY ROSEN 
Mr. Chairman, Mr. Chairman. I know this came out of committee, and it's unusual for the councilors to speak on their committee reports. And as the Chair of Public Health, working with council King and counsel Toomey, we had a very long and excellent hearing about legislation that's going to help us find more doctors who are primary care physicians here in Massachusetts and especially in the city of Worcester. I think what we heard in the last two years, out of all the medical school graduates, 5% only, only 5% go into primary care. And we wonder why people in Worcester can't find physicians. Many are retiring. The primary care physicians get paid so much less than those who specialize. So 5% is nothing, because 95% of medical school graduates, school graduates recently in the Massachusetts have gone into specialties they don't want to go into primary care. There's bills like these three all across the country. These three bills have been supported by many health agencies, by a couple of cities and towns, and they asked Worcester if we could support them. I'm not going to go through all of them. You all have the backup. I think for the third time, it must be about 50 pages long on the the legislation. But at our meeting, we had Dr Wayne Altman speak. He's from Tufts Medical we had Dr Hirsch, who used to be our medical director. We had our new Commissioner of Public Health, Dr Seema Dixit, and we have Fran Anthes. She's the Chair of the Board of Health, and they did educate us about these three, these three legislative bills, and I just would like the Worcester City Council tonight to support them, because it's going to help find more physicians in the city city of Western and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts who will specialize in primary care. And that's so, so necessary. So your support is needing on needed on this, and I think it's going to go through the legislature and it's going to be good for the people in the city of Worcester. Thank you for the time.

Mayor Joe Petty  2:16  
Thank you, Counselor. Council

Speaker 1  2:20  
is

Mayor Joe Petty  2:21  
for the record, councilor Morris Bergman has recused himself on AA, so the motion is accepted to adopt

Councilor and Vice Chairman Khrystian King  2:27  
chairman.

Mayor Joe Petty  2:28  
Oh, yes,

COUNCILOR KHRYSTIAN KING
thank you. You know. I want to thank councilor Rosen for his leadership in this particular matter, and I want to encourage the press that's covering this, and I want to encourage folks to go to that public subcommittee meeting. That particular meeting had a host of professionals and experts on this subject matter. And you know, there was some good comments and questions from councilor Tony myself and councilor Rosen and some related orders that came out. This is, again, you know, as a frontline social worker, I know exactly what the impacts are. And you know, some really good work went on there. And, you know, I just encourage folks to take a look at it by the, you know, the eye test, we can certainly see what the challenges are for people receiving care. We know the challenges that we've had of experience with the hospitals, reducing the service provision and the health care from Leominster to Clinton to Marlboro and Worcester becomes a hub, and, you know, it becomes challenging and often delayed treatment, delayed medical mental health care can have life consequences, results. So this is very important. I encourage the press and I encourage the public to please go to that meeting that was expertly chaired by councilor Rosen to gather further information. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Speaker 3  4:11  
Motion accepting to adopt Roll Call. Councilor Bergman's recused councilor balada, Councilor O'Connell, yes, Councilor fasola, yes. Councilor King

Councilor and Vice Chairman Khrystian King  4:23  
Yes.

Speaker 3  4:23  
Councilor Mitra, yes. Councilor Ojeda, yes. Councilor Rivera, yes. Councilor Rosen, Councilor Toomey, yes. And Mayor petty Yes. So take you

Speaker 4  4:45  
Okay, so on that note, this is Charlene, the editor. That's who you're recording right now. Counselor King suggested watching that segment of. Of the meeting of the Health and Human Services standing committee, or whatever it's called, the Committee on Public Health and Human Services. That's what it's called. Okay, so I am going to play that part of the meeting that happened on April 6 as part of these notes, here we go.

Speaker 5  5:53  
I i i.

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