A Region in Crisis
Your loved one is sick. You rush them to the hospital emergency room. The lights are off. The doors are padlocked tight. You are 30 minutes away from the next nearest emergency room and time is running out.
This scenario could be a reality very soon if the Hemet Valley and Menifee Valley medical centers are sold to outside buyers with no interest in keeping our hospitals open.
Valley Health System is in Chapter 9 bankruptcy with more than $64 million in claims against it. It lost $7 million in the last fiscal year. The district is expected to run out of money by spring and quite likely sooner than that.
Our hospitals could close within the year.
Our region has just one-half the state’s average number of hospital beds per 1,000 residents. It is ill-prepared to deal with the loss of our hospitals’ 240 acute-care beds.
The loss of 1,400 healthcare jobs will have crippling economic impacts on our community. Our unemployment rate has already surpassed 13 percent and property values continue to plummet.
Physicians for Healthy Hospitals wants to rehabilitate our ailing hospitals and keep their doors open through a strong personal commitment to healthcare excellence.
It’s the right medicine for our hospitals. It’s the right medicine for our communities.