All About Marin

Healthcare board underscores Bedard's point

Dr. Larry Bedard says it’s time to consider selling Marin General Hospital to a private company and get the “dysfunctional” Marin Healthcare District politics out of the local hospital business.
It didn’t take long Monday night for some of his fellow members of the Marin Healthcare District board to provide some proof for Bedard’s criticism.

Facing a crowd of close to 100 people, most of whom came to hear a presentation on MGH’s future, the district board even got into a debate over whether to hear the talk, and then voted 3-2 to arrange its agenda so his talk could start at 8 p.m., a polite gesture to the large crowd.

Despite the standing-room-only turnout, directors Dr. Archimedes Ramirez and Jennifer Rienks objected to letting Gerald Peters, a hospital attorney and Lucas Valley resident, give his presentation, saying it was premature and inappropriate given the district’s plans to begin a 10-week, $355,000 study into a variety of options for MGH, among them having the district run the hospital or selling it.

“He’s just presenting information,” answered Sharon Jackson, the board’s president.

“To say we’re not ready to discuss this issue is to deny reality,” said Bedard, who had asked Peters to speak. “It’s being discussed in nurses’ lounges. It’s being discussed in doctors’ offices.

“There has never been this many people concerned about an issue show up to a meeting,” he said.

Bedard wasn’t getting any debate from staffers at the Corte Madera Inn, where the meeting was held. They weren’t expecting a huge crowd and spent an hour wheeling in stacks of chairs and expanding the room to accommodate the turnout.

Rienks said the board should also get a presentation from someone who thinks there’s promise for a district-run MGH. It should.

 

The original article can be found at: http://blogs.marinij.com/allaboutmarin/2007/05/healthcare_board_underscores_b.html