Editorials and health care

PUBLISHER’S NOTE Joe Bradley

POSTED: July 20, 2008

Two questions that I receive often are: Whose opinion is that on the left side of the Opinion Page under The Maui News name? And, why are the newspaper's editorials so often about health care on Maui?

The answer to the first question is simple: The top left side of our Opinion Page is reserved for a daily editorial. An editorial represents the newspaper's position on the issue discussed and since I'm the publisher of the newspaper, the opinion expressed is mine.

The second question is just as easy to answer: I don't understand why an attractive place to live like Maui doesn't have a 350-bed hospital with a wide variety of specialists.

I'm even more baffled by longtime residents and the local-born who (a) don't think Maui deserves such a hospital and (b) can't support such a facility.

It seems to be an accepted fact of life that if something serious is wrong, you go to Oahu.

This line of thinking is rooted in a self-image of Maui as a tiny, rural community. But Maui County has 141,783 residents, according to the latest census tally, plus 40,000 or so visitors on any day. That is not tiny.

Right before I first came to Maui in 2000, I was living in Marquette in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, hundreds of miles from Detroit. The closest city of any size is Green Bay, Wis., some 150 miles away.

When I lived in Marquette, there were 57,000 residents in the county.

Remarkably, it had a modern 350-bed hospital with over 200 M.D.s, D.O.s D.P.s, Ph.ds and P.A.s on staff or with staff privileges. More than 60 specialties were represented. One of its open-heart surgeons pioneered the one-inch incision for single artery bypass operations.

Granted, Marquette General is a regional hospital for the Upper Peninsula, but that populace is about the size of Maui County.

Every time I think of what Maui should have in the way of hospital services, I think of Marquette General Hospital. You can see it for yourself on the Internet at www.mgh.org.

It is not denigrating Maui Memorial Medical Center to wish it were bigger with more specialists on staff. Sadly, it appears that its alliance with Hawaii Health Systems Corp. holds it back.

HHSC's goal is to make sure rural areas in the state have a minimum standard of health care. If you are part of an organization whose goal is to meet minimums, it is hard to maximize your facilities and services.

And, make no mistake, it will take very good facilities to attract the specialists Maui needs and deserves.

In the past, The Maui News editorials supported the Malulani plan proposed by Dr. Ron Kwon and the continuing efforts to build a west side hospital. In the future, we'll probably support other health care ventures.

It is simply essential that Maui attracts the specialists our people deserve - and we're going to back the people who will build the facilities to attract them.

Joe Bradley is publisher of The Maui News.