Photo by South OC Beaches
The City of San Clemente Hospital Healthcare Public Forum is Wednesday December 9 2015.
The San Clemente Hospital Forum will be at the San Clemente Community Center at 4:00pm.
The San Clemente Community Center is located at 100 North Calle Seville.
The Public is encouraged to attend.
The San Clemente Hospital Healthcare Forum will update the public on how the city of San Clemente is working to keep a hospital in San Clemente.
The Forum will include local government officials and their representatives and various stakeholders.
The focus of the Forum will be to discuss the current legislation, next steps and most important, seeking community input on the items discussed.
San Clemente Memorial Hospital Closure Back Ground
At the November 3, 2015 City Council meeting, the Council directed staff to prepare a rezone and General Plan amendment to ensure that the current hospital property is zoned only for the essential hospital purpose it was designated for when purchased by Saddleback Memorial Care in 2007.
State zoning law gives the City the ability to review and update its zoning laws to make sure that they protect the public peace, safety, and welfare, including public health and quality of life.
Additionally, staff was directed to send Memorial Healthcare a letter requesting they provide data on Saddleback Memorial Care San Clemente Campus’s financial standing, and to request a meeting with its Board of Directors to continue discussions to benefit the citizens of San Clemente.
At that same Council meeting, the City Council also directed staff to review the opportunity of seeking potential hospital suitors that may be interested in coming to Clemente to provide hospital and emergency department services. The City will be meeting with those the potential suitors in early December of 2015.
When the City of San Clemente became aware of the potential closure of the Saddleback Memorial Care San Clemente Campus in late 2014, the City took immediate steps to understand the impacts, seek community input, involve stakeholders and seek plans to mitigate this potential impact to the City.
The City conducted a series of public meetings with the Saddleback Memorial San Clemente Hospital Advisory Committee.
This Advisory Committee recommended seeking legislative relief to authorize a satellite Emergency Department.
Thus, Assembly Bill 911 (Brough) and Senate Bill 787 (Bates) were introduced.
The City of San Clemente hired the Sacramento lobbying firm of Aprea & Micheli to immediately begin seeking legislative support for these bills. These bills eventually were referred to an interim study for further review.
In September of 2015, members from the Assembly and Senate Health Committees conducted an onsite tour and had a series of presentations made by various stakeholders at the San Clemente Hospital to better understand the unique situation facing San Clemente.
This tour was very beneficial to understanding the needs of San Clemente as it related to pending legislation.
As a part of its commitment to the residents of San Clemente, the City Council has begun taking additional steps to explore other alternatives to ensure the community’s healthcare needs are met.
These alternatives do not include increasing taxes on San Clemente residents.
Former Mayor, Chris Hamm, stated “Our community needs and deserves a hospital and emergency room. We have been working tirelessly with Memorial Care to ensure we have a true partner in our hospital and medical services needs moving into the future.”
