The representative of Northeast Texas Health Public Health District - Wood County made a presentation during Wood County commissioner’s budget workshops July 14.

Paula Thomas works out of Winnsboro for the organization in Wood County. She told about difficulties due to the COVID-19 problem.

“As ya’ll know, recently we have a had a challenge with COVID-19. I know ya’ll decided to dissolve the local health authority here a year and half or two years ago. Since the outbreak of the coronavirus it is increasingly difficult for us as a health department here. I reached out to the judge to see if while ya’ll were in budget talks if it might be a consideration to revisit and consider trying to find another representative for here. I know Dr. Murley (David) was it for many, many years,” Thomas said. “Next year with vaccinations and things of that nature, in my opinion, it would just be very beneficial if the citizens here had a local physician who they respect and trust. I would actually work under a local health authority. We have done a good job here with the uptake in cases as opposed to our surrounding counties we are in pretty good shape.”

Thomas said she hoped the health authority question could be reconsidered.

“That is basically what I had spoke to the judge about that it is something you would reconsider. Van Zandt County has their own health authority and he is a volunteer. He does not charge the county anything. Smith County contracts with UT Health Science Center,” Thomas added. “I thought of a few doctors here that might be interested. We have had several businesses reach out, church camps and things of that nature have questions for us that we can’t answer so we forward those on to the region and it has been very difficult to get responses.

“People tend to trust local folks. They don’t want the state telling them what to do. They really don’t want the county to tell them what to do, but if you have a local physician who is well-respected, they are more apt to listen,” Thomas noted. “When the vaccine (for coronavirus) is made available it would really be beneficial to us. It’s possible we could  find someone to volunteer for this position. We could reach out to both hospitals (Quitman and Winnsboro) and see if they might be interested in providing someone who could answer questions. I could reach out to the medical community for someone, but it would have to be someone who y’all put your trust in.”

Thomas is going to gather a list of names and bring them back to the commissioners. In the past a small stipend had been paid to the health authority.