— from Melinda Milligan —

I’ve recently become aware of a petition to exempt the University of Washington clinic from the need to submit a proposal for the establishment of a health care system/practice on Orcas that meets the needs of our community — a system that sets up one established clinic to serve the entire island. The petitioners want to just “keep the U of W on Orcas,” as is, and continue to support them financially while disregarding the hard work the OIHCD has done to devise a plan for sustainable enduring quality health care on Orcas for all. It also, by the way, ignores the many Orcas residents who are not patients at that clinic.

When reading the petition, it seems that the main rationale to make an exception for U of W is that individuals have received good medical care there and appreciate the doctors and staff. Although I understand the importance of a trusting, continuing relationship with our health care providers  (I am a recently retired provider myself and had been involved in health care on Orcas since the 1970s), I think that appreciating our providers is not the point.

Rather, the OIHCD commissioners have worked diligently to devise a plan to support a health system that will endure, be sustainable financially, and provide care through local providers and staff.

Any proposal submitted to OIHCD needs to outline plans to make access to electronic records a smooth process, plans to provide after hours care (telemedicine is woefully inadequate in many situations), and do so in a financially efficient way that puts our tax dollars to best use.

I do not believe the OIHCD timeline for proposals is unreasonable at all. The request for proposals went out some time ago. All health institutions have been stressed by the Covid 19 pandemic, but none of them are lacking the resources to put together a proposal in a timely fashion, if they sincerely want to provide health care on Orcas.

Rather than submitting a petition to OIHCD, I respectfully suggest that those individuals who want to see U of W continue their practice here submit a petition to U of W clinic- a petition that asks that the clinic immediately submits a proposal to OIHCD as requested.

I sincerely hope that OIHCD stays the course and timeline they have established. I am optimistic that this will lead to a future of stable, quality health care on Orcas.

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