The Maryland Poison Control Center is the difference between life or death for hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people. As such, it is too vital to become a bureaucratic football to be kicked around between state agencies.
For many years the center, which advises health professionals about treatment for poisons around the clock, has been part of the University of Maryland at Baltimore. Faced with budget stringency and inadequate funding, the university wants to shift the program elsewhere. The state health department, with the ++ same budget problems, is ducking. As a result, the already understaffed poison center may have to cut back services. That is unacceptable.
Locating the poison center at the university's School of Pharmacy makes sense. Its faculty has the expertise that even the best-trained health professionals often lack about poisons. The center is a valuable training tool for its students. But its students are now manning the telephones some of the time, doing work only a fully trained specialist should do (although the specialists closely supervise the students). Perhaps that justifies the university's bearing some of the costs of the center. But it should not have to bear more of the burden.