Nursing Home Fire

This week 10 people died in a fire in a residential care facility.  Additional  people were injured.  How sad and needless this was.  My heart goes out to the families of these people.  Now Blunt is looking for someone to blame.  Interesting that he didn't care that the person running the Department of Health and Senior Services didn't care about anything but getting people to loose weight.  Public Health is about protecting the health of the Citizens of Missouri.  Weight loss is one part - but not a mandate of DHSS. Monitoring the care given to our elderly and infirm IS a mandate.  Budget cuts, shifting of funds and the inability to fill positions left the long term care regulatory program unable to meet DHSS's statutory mandates.  Although there was an inspection in the facility that burned in March of 06, it had been 3 years since the privious one.  State law requires that all long term care facilities be inspected 2 times a year.  And it's well known in the nursing home industry that if you run a nursing home and don't like what the inspectors are finding, call the gov's office or other elected official, and the findings go away.  Who knows what the March 06 inspection really found.  Without enough trained inspecters, that mandate has not been met.  Additionally, does Blunt even care if these mandates are met?  If he doesn't see that the DHSS has the resources to do this job, what about other mandates that are not appealing to him?  The DHSS investigates food borne outbreaks in restarants; inspects child care facilities and hospitals and does much more to protect the Citizens of Mo.  Does the public know how much these programs have been cut in order to pay for speical projects or the salaries of his friends?  Let's get this figured out and fixed before the next fire.