Puzzling delays hamstring Maui hospital privatization

The fate of health care on Maui is turning out to be one of the great puzzlements of this Labor Day weekend.

Just when it appeared that all the legal blockades between the state and the United Public Workers union were cleared, all the parties started saying the entire deal was at impasse and nothing was moving.

Now Maui Memorial Hospital is looking at cutting its service and patient beds by 10 percent after Kaiser Permanente said it couldn’t complete the hospital takeover until July of 2017.

Left in the lurch are the 155,000 citizens of Maui County, who until last week thought Kaiser was taking over the state-run hospital right now.

Since becoming governor, David Ige has asked for, and been given by the state Legislature, the power to negotiate a deal to bring a private party to run the state’s hospital on Maui, Molokai and Lanai.

The governor already had the laws in place for him to privatize a state operation, staffed by state employees, and this deal would be the largest privatization in state history.

Reportedly Kaiser delayed because UPW had asked for more time to mull over the deal — this after nearly a year of negotiations, lawsuits and general blustering and the unions making big-body.

Last week, Avery Chumbley, chairman of the state board now running the Maui hospitals, said the hospital now has to figure out what to do if it is still running the hospital and paying the bills until July.

Plans are not pretty. They include closing eight intensive care beds and a dozen medical and surgical beds. After that, another 30 beds and various services would go, according to published reports.

Chumbley said all the uncertainty makes it difficult to get the trained staff to stick around. Medical specialists, doctors, nurses and other health care workers are educated and in demand.

Government stumbling and a passive-aggressive union cannot deliver a health care deal to keep Maui safe.

Perhaps Maui suffers from having too much political clout to get it right. The speaker of the House represents Maui in the Legislature, the chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Commerce and Health represents Maui, and the chairman of the Senate Committee on Judiciary and Labor is from Maui. So is the lieutenant governor.

House Speaker Joe Souki last week said in an interview that the Maui Memorial Hospital board shouldn’t be threatening to shut down services, but instead should be saying what it needs to stay in operation until Kaiser can come on board.

“Kaiser told me they won’t run, they are here to stay,” Souki said.

“What is needed is for the hospital to outline what it needs to be strong, not threaten to cut,” Souki said.

Meanwhile, Gov. Ige has ratcheted up his sustainability pitch, calling for Hawaii to double its own food production by 2020 and to produce all its own energy by 2045. How about if he just works to ensure hospitals on all islands are sustainable and all citizens can be treated without a flight to Oahu?

Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Reach him at rborreca@staradvertiser.com.