A state senator who has fought to restore Maine’s corps of public health nurses is suing Gov. Paul LePage’s administration for failing to comply with a 2017 law that required the state to hire more than two dozen nurses and rebuild a public health program the administration largely dismantled in its first six years in office.
Sen. Brownie Carson filed a lawsuit in Kennebec County Superior Court on Monday asking the court to order LePage’s administration to hire the nurses within 90 days. The lawsuit also requests that the court appoint a special auditor to ensure the Maine Department of Health and Human Services complies with any court order.
Carson and two nurses who are joining him in the lawsuit as plaintiffs “are seeking nothing more than what the law already requires,” reads the suitagainst Health and Human Services Commissioner Ricker Hamilton.
Traditionally, public health nurses in Maine have conducted home visits with at-risk mothers and infants, including addicted mothers and drug-affected babies, to monitor their health; provided school nurse services in rural schools without their own school nurses; worked to contain infectious diseases such as tuberculosis; and assisted in responses to public health emergencies.
To read the rest of “LePage didn’t hire nurses as new law ordered. Now he’s being sued.,” an article by contributing Bangor Daily News staff writer Matthew Stone, please follow this link to the BDN online.
