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The Frederick County Health Department announced Thursday that state budget cuts will force the elimination of 10 positions and two health programs, and an administrative merger of several of its services.

Beginning Jan. 1, 2010, the county's health department will no longer offer family planning services or treatment for sexually transmitted diseases, according to a news release sent by the department's health officer, Dr. Barbara A. Brookmyer.

As a result of the dropped programs, five nurses, one office clerk and four interpreters who worked in the departments will be laid off, the release said. Eight staff members will be reassigned to an H1N1 influenza planning and response service, which is funded by a temporary federal grant.

The health department determined the program cuts by examining what services they were not required to offer, and could be provided by the private sector, according to the release. The department will solicit private providers to offer the services after Jan. 1.

The layoffs were based on seniority, consistent with the state's process of determining layoffs, the release said.

The scale-backs in services and employees came as a result of an $814,000 cut in the department's fiscal 2010 budget, imposed by the Maryland Board of Public Works in August.

The funding cut also reduced the department's budget by 25 percent for cancer screenings and tobacco prevention and cessation programs.

The cuts compounded the health department's financial woes, as the agency's budget had already taken a $464,000 hit in at the end of fiscal 2009 — which ended June 30 — that led to a 15 percent reduction in its health services staff.

The department said that 98 percent of the department's budget is salaries, and the recent budget cuts from the state could not be absorbed in operating costs.

"Citizens are currently experiencing increased wait times for some services due to the reductions, and recent action by the Board of Public Works will significantly impact the availability of some services and timeliness of others," the release stated.

The department announced that due to the most recent cuts, it would also merge the administration offices of several of its programs.

Its Women, Infants and Children (WIC) nutrition program will merge with maternal and child health programs; the cardiovascular disease, obesity, diabetes prevention and injury prevention initiatives will administratively join the cancer prevention programs; and the enrollment and eligibility determination functions for the Maryland Children's Health Program will joined with the Administrative Care Coordination Unit for Medicaid.

"The availability of funding presents enough of a barrier to full implementation of ... public health initiatives," Brookmyer said in the release. "We don't need to further compromise our efficiency ... by maintaining unnecessary administrative barriers."

E-mail Erica L. Green at egreen@gazette.net.