By Glen Gustafson
Last week’s Islander carried a long, very misinformed letter concerning the plan to replace our outdated and outlawed hospital. Here is the short version of where our neighbor went off the tracks. First, the $1.5M cost to renovate the existing building is wildly underestimated. To get an idea of what it takes to make a safe, public building in earthquake land, think back to the early days of the construction of the new Conservancy building. That involved months of pouring concrete retaining walls, putting in deep footers, and installing very heavy steel posts and beams. After all that, the construction of the building itself could begin.
Next, our neighbor wants us to believe that “Islanders” don’t really use the hospital and prefer to go overtown for each medical appointment. Like most people here, I have done this on occasion—when I had to—but it is definitely not the efficient or preferred approach. It ends up taking most of a day and adding a minimum of $100 to the cost of every appointment. Further, if I miss my 5:45 p.m. boat for the return trip, there goes another $100! And if I go to that extent, do I really get anything better? Except for very specialized services—which we will never be able to offer here on the island—my opinion is that our doctors, nurses and diagnostics are just as good. Let me give you an example. I recently had a hip replacement surgery at the Huntington Hospital in Pasadena. I received superb care at this Cadillac of a hospital. Afterwards, I returned to the Island for a one-week recovery and Physical Therapy stay at our hospital here. Of course, the facilities were not as deluxe. However, the medical attention and nursing care were at exactly the same level of professionality and caring that I experienced at the Huntington; NO difference!
On a project this big, it would be wonderful to have all the money in the bank beforehand! However, this is very unlikely, unless we have an Exxon, or Apple, or Google behind us. Instead, we must tediously work towards securing the necessary financing, one step at a time. One of those steps was the very generous and civic-minded donation of the land by the Catalina Island Company. Other steps are being seriously pursued right now. The tiny fee of $2/trip here is one item in this effort. However, if we accelerate our efforts to provide an attractive, inviting, friendly visit here by the cruise ship visitors, I think it is very unlikely that the cruise ship companies will simply quit in a huff … over a two-dollar fee. Instead, what if we, the Islanders, showed our visitors, more actively, that we are glad they came? And then, if they get sick or hurt while here, we can take care of them, as they would, if it happened to us overtown somewhere.
Glen Gustafson is a member of the Board for the Catalina Island Medical Center, however, this Letter to the Editor was submitted as an individual Community member.
