By Sheryl Hamlin
In the Public Comments section of the May 15, 2019 Santa Paula Council meeting, citizen Derek Fourage informed the council and the public of unverified decisions about the Santa Paula hospital made by the VCHCA Ventura County Health Care Agency.
Mr. Fourage said that because of “low census and budgetary concerns”, a decision to close the labor and delivery department effective June 30, 2019 has been made. There are other unconfirmed “whispers” that lab services will also be closed as of June 30, 2019.
He reminded the audience that in 2003 the county started with closing OB, ER and then the entire hospital, so this appears to be a “full circle”, he said.
HCA plans to clean up the gross mismanagement of VCMC (Ventura County Medical Center), he said. The Santa Clara Valley which includes Santa Paula, Piru, Fillmore, Bardsdale and Ojai, an area of about 50,000 people, will be adversely affected having to wait at VCMC for potential lifesaving procedures.
During the portion of the meeting where council votes on future agenda items, the council voted to pursue this citizen report.
County Demographics and Competition
Ventura County is one of the least populated counties in the state and has experienced a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) for the last decade of less than 1%, which to demographers indicates a declining population. Read about that here and here.
However, it is ironic that during this same period Kaiser Permanent has reported record growth with 150,000 new members and is opening a new medical hospital in California where the first five classes will receive free tuition.
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Santa Paula MEMORIAL Hospital, an independently owned and operated facility, closed in 2003. SPMH was NOT operated by the county at the time and thus could not have been closed by the county in 2003; rather, it was grossly mismanaged by a hospital managment company under contract to an equally incompetant hospital board comprised largely of private citizens from Santa Paula. SPMH declared bankruptcy on Dec 26, 2003. After lengthy and sometimes contentious negotiations, the facility was purchased by the county in 2005, renovated at several million dollars cost, and reopened as Santa Paula Hospital (note the very slight name change) in July of 2006.
When and how they . people on the city ofice manager will explain the millions they are givin to el toro company for redu al the service they do wrong and why they are paying again when at the fistr they make the mistakes when all this is goin to stop
Good comment Dr Munguia….the hospital is very Important to all of us in Santa Paula
Peter Wright
How will this information impact the three new developments? Having a local hospital was an important factor in our decision to relocate to Santa Paula.