Community Hospital
Dear Editor: The outcome for the Sitka Community Hospital is something most all Sitkans have a firm belief in, one way or the other. I support the Sitka Community Hospital. I believe Sitka does need both hospitals.
The Assembly will be meeting Tuesday night, June 5, to review the Administrator and the Evaluation Committee’s recommendation on the Quorum and SEAHRC proposals.
There were 5 proposals, and 2 of the 3 that will not be considered are Alaska Regional Hospital and University of Washington. This decision will be made without meaningful input from the citizens.
None of the proposals or even summaries of the proposals, have been shared with the community. Even the scoring matrix used by the committee has been heavily redacted before its release as part of the June 5 meeting packet materials. The entire RFP review appears designed to minimize community engagement and understanding of this very important issue.
A one-evening meeting, with very limited background materials, (made available only a couple of working days before the meeting), is unsatisfactory if community understanding and buy-in is to be reached on this important decision. Information about all five proposals should be shared with the community with enough time allowed for review of these materials before the assembly meets to make decisions about them.
This is not the Sitka I have lived in for 56 years. This is not the way Sitka should do business, especially an issue this critical to everyone.
I am asking the Assembly to postpone their decision until this can be done. Proprietary information need not be included of course, but surely there is much to share that would not jeopardize an RFP respondents interests.
In addition I am asking any Sitkans that feel this is not right, to contact each Assemblyman about your concern, and show up at the June 5 meeting and stand up for Sitka.
Nancy Blatchley Davis, Sitka
