Mar 6, 2007 3:34 pm US/Pacific
Governor's Top Prison Health Aid Resigns
SACRAMENTO (AP) ―
The doctor appointed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to reform California's inmate health care system has resigned at the governor's request after he was demoted by a federal court-appointed receiver.
Dr. Peter Farber-Szekrenyi said he was asked to resign Monday by California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Secretary James Tilton.
Schwarzenegger appointed Farber-Szekrenyi director of the department's Division of Correctional Health Care Services in November 2005. Acting at the request of U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson, Schwarzenegger also named the career health administrator as the primary official responsible for reforming a system blamed for numerous inmate deaths.
In April 2006, Henderson named Robert Sillen as the federal receiver in charge of the health care system. The judge ruled that the prison system wasn't acting quickly enough to improve conditions he said were leading to an average of one inmate death each week from medical malpractice or neglect.
Last month, Sillen cut Farber-Szekrenyi's salary by 40 percent and removed him from overseeing inmate medical services. Sillen said he was upset that Farber-Szekrenyi had not told him the department was signing a contract with a Florida firm, Medical Development International, to improve outpatient care at two Los Angeles-area prisons.
Farber-Szekrenyi had remained in charge of inmate dental and mental health care.
"I'm a gubernatorial appointee," Farber-Szekrenyi said. "It's his prerogative to do whatever he'd like to do."
(© 2007 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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