St. Paul’s staff urge premier to save the hospital
Jack Keating
Province
St. Paul’s Hospital will be “critically damaged” by the provincial government’s proposed options to “dismantle” it, says the hospital’s medical staff.
In a letter to Premier Gordon Campbell, staff raise serious concerns about the government’s intentions for the historic facility in downtown Vancouver.
Signed by the hospital’s staff executive, including president Dr. Dara Behroozi, the letter says the health ministry is contemplating changes that would “critically damage St. Paul’s Hospital’s key provincial programs and the hospital’s international reputation as a centre of research, teaching and care excellence.”
The letter obtained by The Province says staff “are united in our urgency and determination to ensure St. Paul’s Hospital is not dismantled.”
The executive “urgently requests” that the premier gives “assurance” that the hospital “will not be dismantled and its key provincial programs such as cardio-pulmonary and renal programs will not be moved to other organizations in whole or in part.”
The letter, dated Jan. 30, states that the hospital executive is ready to make the case that St. Paul’s “can best serve the needs of all British Columbians through strengthening the hospital’s programs, not by cutting them out and distributing them to other hospitals or health authorities.”
Health Minister George Abbott has received a copy of the letter, but neither he nor the premier have responded.
“I appreciate that members of the medical staff have concerns at St. Paul’s,” said Abbott, adding that it needs upgrades.
“Portions of it have been on that site now for over 100 years, so it is a facility which in the years ahead clearly will require either huge remediation, which may or may not be possible physically on that site, or replacement,” said Abbott.
He pointed out that the St. Paul’s Foundation has acquired property at Station and Prior Streets “so [moving] is a possibility as well.”
NDP health critic Adrian Dix said the Campbell government is trying to delay any decision on St. Paul’s until after the May 12 election.
“In 2002 the provincial government promised to upgrade St. Paul’s and they haven’t acted on it,” said Dix.
“And since then they’ve broken that promise.”
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