In the coming months, the Spokane Regional Health District’s Board of Health will be required to change its membership in order to include an equal amount of elected and nonelected officials. Legislation that will ask the Board of Health to acknowledge issues of health equity and allocate funds to reduce disparities within the District is also being passed.

Health care workers and community organizers with demonstrated experience addressing health inequities, as well as community members affected by these inequities, must be a part of this conversation and any restructuring that follows. As a current medical student and organizer for the Spokane Chapter of the Health Equity Circle, I have witnessed the disconnect that exists in both communication and cooperation between government and those facing and fighting disparities.

I have also found it disheartening that an overwhelming majority of the current members of the Board of Health are not licensed to practice medicine in Washington and have never received a formal medical or public health education. Readers should urge the Spokane Regional Health District and current Board of Health to consider nonelected officials with experience in healthcare and/or battling health inequities as they discuss how to proceed with changes in their membership.

Kenneth Darcy

Spokane