No breakup for hospital system
Advertiser Staff
The Senate Ways and Means Committee shelved a bill yesterday that would have dismantled the network of state hospitals. House Bill 2709 would have divided the quasi-public Hawaii Health Systems Corp. into county or regional hospital systems and provided $49 million to set them up.
Some Maui lawmakers wanted Maui hospitals removed from the system to keep the money generated at Maui Memorial Medical Center — the only profitable hospital in the network — from being distributed to hospitals on other islands. But opponents of the bill said it would hurt other hospitals and the patients they serve.
