Galveston voters are getting the ol' one-two punch from the Galveston County Daily News today. Please see "UTMB Funding Comes with Strings Attached" in the 7/5/09 on-line edition of the Daily News. An excerpt:
“When they hear the word ‘indigent,’ most people are going to immediately think a person is on welfare, lazy or unemployed,” Yarbrough said. “But the hospital district is going to help cover the working poor, residents who work in our fast-food establishments and big-box stores or service employees — waiters and waitresses — who don’t make enough money to buy their own plan or people who have lost their jobs.”
State Rep. Craig Eiland, D-Galveston, who is credited with devising a plan keep the medical branch on the island, thinks voters would approve a hospital district.
“I think it will pass because it has to,” Eiland said.
Also see an editorial in today's Daily News on the proposed district titled "Support Hospital District Concept." An excerpt:
If local people fail to do that, the $150 million won’t come, the tower won’t be built and the medical branch will have to get by with the 330 beds it can fit into John Sealy Hospital after moving such things as the kitchen and pharmacy off the first floor. One hundred of those are prison beds so, for the public, John Sealy would be reduced by more than half.
Apparently, you can’t operate a Level-1 trauma center with a 230-bed hospital.
Are 230 beds enough to operate a serious medical school? We doubt it.
The Blogmeister recognizes the need for a hospital district. It's a political necessity as much as anything else, but still a necessity. I also think, however, that Galveston's citizens should watch over their money and their interest in the welfare of UTMB by poring over its finances regularly and relentlessly to make sure all funding received by administrators is used wisely and on the level. UTMB's officials have shown time and time again that they're capable of pulling a "fast one" on the public. Whether it was a reduction-in-force or legislation regarding the biolab, they didn't bother to coordinate anything with the community until they got caught.
UTMB and UT corporate-style officials continue to lust for the mainland and the prospect of more profit. Service to the community means little to nothing to them, as evidenced by how little credit faculty got for community service before they were thrown out into the street during the RIF. If the community doesn't keep that outfit on a short leash, they'll find themselves strung up by the longer variety.
