[Viva] FW: URGENT BREAKING NEWS ON ST. PAULS HOSPITAL

[Tami S.]

From: johnb.bcpwa at gmail.com [mailto:johnb.bcpwa at gmail.com] On Behalf Of John
Bishop
Sent: June-03-10 12:45 PM
To: BCPWA Board of Directors; BCPWA Collective Advocacy; Ross Harvey
Subject: Fwd: URGENT BREAKING NEWS ON ST. PAULS HOSPITAL

 

FYI ...

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: MLA Spencer Chandra Herbert <s.chandraherbert.mla at leg.bc.ca>
Date: Thu, Jun 3, 2010 at 10:19
Subject: URGENT BREAKING NEWS ON ST. PAULS HOSPITAL
To: johnb at bcpwa.org






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Friends,

As this is of critical importance to all of us in the West End, I thought it
appropriate to breaki with our usual monthly e-mails to you in order to send
you this timely and wonderful information on the future of our community
hospital – St. Paul’s. 

It has certainly been a VERY long and stressful journey to get to this
point.

I will present this news exactly as it was reported first this morning by
Charlie Smith of the Georgia Straight. 

You can also click
<http://spencerherbertmla.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=11073062ad037597
beccee62e&id=7662fa7f87&e=1b2d8885c0> here to read it on the Straight
website.

There will be more to follow on this breaking news in the days to come but
for now, this is the good news so many have been waiting so long for.

Error! Filename not specified.

Spencer



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St. Paul's Hospital's emergency room services are no longer in jeopardy of
being transferred to another facility.


B.C. Liberal government says it will not downgrade St. Paul’s Hospital
By Charlie Smith

Vancouver-West End NDP MLA Spencer Herbert welcomes the news that St. Paul's
Hospital won't be downgraded.

The B.C. Liberal government says it will not downgrade St. Paul’s Hospital. 

In a June 1 phone interview with the Georgia Straight, Health Services
Minister Kevin Falcon acknowledged that there has been a great deal of
speculation that services at St. Paul’s would be transferred to a new
hospital that would be built on a Station Street site at False Creek Flats.
When asked specifically if he has ruled out downgrading the West End
hospital, Falcon said, “Yes. In a nutshell, yes.”

Moments later, he added, “I think there was a lot of people concerned that
it might get downgraded, but St. Paul’s Hospital provides, as you know,
world-class service in the whole range of areas, including their cardiac and
their HIV [care], et cetera.…I can’t for a minute imagine that we would want
to do any less than that.”

On May 26, Falcon said during a legislative debate over his ministry’s
budget that he has been in discussions with Providence Health Care
officials, who oversee the hospital. “They’ve got some very interesting
ideas on some capital investments that could be made going forward,” he
said, according to Hansard. “We are looking at that as part of our capital
plan, and we still have a fair bit more work to do. I have to say that and
point that out. But what I can tell you is that the discussions have been
very positive.”
Error! Filename not specified.Spencer Chandra Herbert, the NDP MLA for
Vancouver–West End, told the Straight by phone that Falcon’s comments in the
legislature indicate that Providence officials are no longer working hard on
developing a new hospital at the Station Street location. “If they continue
moving down this road and if Falcon hears the voice of the community and
actually decides that rebuilding on site is the way to go, it could mean
that we have a new hospital in the West End,” he said. “It would be a phased
approach. There is an empty parking lot in the back that I think will be the
first spot they will go to to build.”

Falcon’s statement ruling out a St. Paul’s downgrade came after a massive
community campaign dating back several years opposing a new False Creek
Flats hospital, which would have possibly been built through a
public-private partnership. In January 2009, the executive of the St. Paul’s
medical staff wrote to Premier Gordon Campbell seeking an assurance that the
UBC teaching components would remain and that cardiopulmonary and renal
programs wouldn’t be transferred to other organizations.

Falcon’s mother worked as a nurse at St. Paul’s Hospital for more than 20
years. He said that since becoming the health services minister last June,
he has visited the hospital numerous times and met with doctors, nurses, and
administrators. “I felt it was important that I give some signal to try and
put aside the uncertainty that’s has been around this whole question of, ‘Is
it an investment in Station Street?’ or ‘Is it an investment in St. Paul’
s?’?” 

Prior to the 2009 provincial election, NDP health critic Adrian Dix alleged
that the provincial government wanted to transform St. Paul’s into a
community hospital, which he called “nutty health policy”. At the time, then
–health services minister George Abbott said that no decisions had been made
with respect to St. Paul’s, and accused the NDP government in the 1990s of
cutting more than 3,500 acute-care beds.

In 2002, Providence Health Care announced its intention to proceed with a
redevelopment of the hospital, including construction of a new tower and a
new emergency department. Later, Providence revealed that it was preparing a
business case for a new hospital on the Station Street site. On June 1,
Providence spokesperson Shaf Hussain told the Straight by phone that a draft
was done of a business case, but it was never reviewed by the provincial
government. He didn’t offer an explanation, and referred all questions to
the Ministry of Health.

Chandra Herbert expressed satisfaction that the future of St. Paul’s now
appears secure, noting that it is more financially prudent for Providence to
seek provincial funds to redevelop the existing site rather than trying to
come up with a billion dollars to build a new hospital. 



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-- 
John Bishop
Treasurer
BC Persons With AIDS Society
1107 Seymour Street, 2nd Floor
Vancouver, BC    V6B 5S8
t. 604.893.2200
c.604.928.6940
f. 604.893.2251
1.800.994.2437
www.bcpwa.org

It’s time for BCPWA members to register for Healing Retreats at Loon Lake
Camp, June 17-20 or September 3-6.  Sign up for an interview at BCPWA
Reception or call 604.893.2200 (toll free 1.800.994.2437).

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