Skirmishes in the County Health Wars

This letter is in response to Ventura County’s tentative plan to merge with a “for-profit” hospital chain as a means to improve care and service to the needy and the indigent.

There are so many questions that need to be answered concerning this dilemma. Is privatization of VCMC in the best interest of the county and its residents? How will the new private owners ensure continuum of care to the needy and the indigent? Or, will they concern themselves with making a profit and, when that does not occur, will they turn to us for financial assistance?

It appears to this reader that VCMC is talking merger, rather than communicating with other facilities in the area that are willing and able to share the health care needs of the county’s residents.

CYNTHIA SHUSTA, Ventura

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This past week I was invited to speak at the Camarillo Republican Women’s Group to give the county’s side of the “Hospital War” between Ventura County Medical Center and Community Memorial Hospital. I was not aware that there would be any other speakers nor were any referenced in the flier sent out. I was told the members had heard all their information from CMH, but had not heard the county side of the story.

I agreed to speak with the one condition--that I had to leave at a certain time due to other commitments. That condition was fine with the group. I arrived at the appointed time, gave the county’s viewpoint, answered about a dozen questions from the floor, and when there were no more questions, I left as previously agreed.

What I did not know until later, was that Laura Dahlgren, the paid mouthpiece for the CMH board of directors, is a member of this organization. After I left, she got up and presented her view of what I had said. This certainly sounds like another trick by CMH to make certain that no accurate information gets out to the public.

Unfortunately, I was not aware that a rebuttal would be necessary, or I would have made other arrangements for myself or VCMC staff to be available for additional questions. This is just another example of how the CMH board gets its misinformation out to the public.

It is not my practice, nor has it ever been, to intentionally mislead the public or provide incomplete or inaccurate information. I hope those people who listen to both sides of the story, will consider the sources of information along with the underlying motivations and judge accordingly based on the facts.

FRANK SCHILLO, Chairman, Board of Supervisors, Supervisor, 2nd District

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I found your report of Dec. 1 on the county health plan to be informative, but I was chagrined by the negative sentiments toward the poor expressed by several individuals. I counted six derogatory comments, culminating in a classic demonization of the medically indigent as “the kind of people who get in trouble, miss payments, and shirk responsibilities.”

As a family physician at VCMC for 9 1/2 years I have enjoyed the privilege of building relationships with my “county patients” for the betterment of their health and the enrichment of my professional life. The attitudes reflected in your report do a terrible injustice to our patients and reveal a tragic flaw in the moral character of our community.

While promoting a return to “family values” as the antidote for a society in moral and spiritual disarray, our public actions represent a flawed morality. In the last year we have voted for legislation to deny medical care to undocumented members of our community, including pregnant women and children. We’ve also tacitly supported the efforts of a private hospital for the privileged to undermine our public hospital’s ability to provide care to the underprivileged.

In our pursuit of a better community we would do well to exchange our “family values” for Christ’s values. Jesus’ golden rule to love the Lord our God with all our hearts and his admonition to “love your fellow man as yourself” shine through the moral darkness, illuminating a clear path for our community. He elaborates further in Matthew 25:37-40 by unequivocally charging us to feed the hungry, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, and visit the sick and those in prison. In doing so, we honor the God who blessed us with an objective morality on which community can be built. But if we are unwilling to sit with our neighbor in a clinic waiting room, we cannot hope to build the community that we long for.

BRIAN PRESTWICH, M.D., Ventura