An Outrage Remedied

Thank you, Supervisor Judy Mikels, for cracking the whip to end an impasse that has undermined a communitywide effort to provide an east county location for medical examination of sexual assault victims. No one enduring such an ordeal should have to spend extra hours riding in a police car just because some bureaucrats couldn’t work out billing details.

For a decade, rape or child abuse victims in Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley and Moorpark were forced to travel 45 minutes or more to the Ventura County Medical Center in Ventura to have “medicolegal” examinations performed by certified nurses, including the collection of samples necessary for prosecution. VCMC was the only area hospital with the space, equipment and staff for this specialized task.

A group of east county officials worked for more than a year to correct that sad situation. Simi Valley Hospital offered free space for the county’s contract sexual-assault nurse examiners. Supervisor Mikels, Simi Valley City Councilman Paul Miller and Police Chief Randy Adams got local service groups--including the Kiwanis Club of Santa Susana, Rotary Club of Simi Sunrise, Ventura County Medical Resource Foundation, Peace Officers Assn. and the Building Industry Assn.’s Women’s Council--to chip in thousands of dollars for necessary supplies such as a $20,000 microscopic camera and evidence storage lockers.

When the center opened in December, everyone thought a victory had been won for all east county residents. But the new center began accepting only victims brought in by Simi Valley police officers--not by sheriff’s deputies. The problem was a contractual dispute among the county, Sheriff’s Department and the nurses’ employer, Seaside Emergency Associates, a private medical group.

After a Moorpark woman was turned away last month and sent to VCMC for examination, it became clear the system was not working as intended. Last week, scorched by a furious Supervisor Mikels, county health officials promised to cover the cost of sending specialized nurses to Simi Valley to conduct the exams until the differences are worked out.

It’s an outrage that such a worthy effort could be sabotaged for so long by poor communications and bickering over the bill. No one should be expected to perform this service for free but certainly eight months is plenty of time to work out the details. And making east county sexual assault victims suffer additional stress because of this? That’s simply cruel.