Kaiser Community Petition

As a member of our community, I stand with our frontline health care workers and the rest of our Maui community. We call on Kaiser Permanente to immediately hold off on any plans to close the Gastroenterology and Ambulatory Surgery services at its Wailuku Clinic until the State of Hawaii and State Department of Health conduct a full and public discussion through the State’s Certificate of Need review process to explore the consequences of Kaiser’s proposed closure of services.

Background

A message from UNITE HERE Local 5 & HNHP:

When Kaiser Permanente took over Maui Memorial Medical Center in 2016, Kaiser promised to improve continuity of care and reduce wait times for Maui residents’ health care.

Kaiser is breaking that promise.

Kaiser announced in August 2020 plans to close the Gastroenterology and Ambulatory Surgery services at their Wailuku Clinic.  This plan will remove several operating rooms from Maui’s health care system and put new load on the operating rooms at Maui Memorial Medical Center.

We are of course devastated by the potential loss of jobs at a time when Maui is experiencing its highest unemployment rates in memory, and when experienced health care workers remain crucial to rebuilding the health and safety of our community.  But we are equally concerned for patients and Maui’s health.

Kaiser’s plan to shut down services at Wailuku Clinic raises obvious questions about how this move will affect the waiting time for patient procedures and treatment.  Making patients move to a different facility and receive treatment from different care provider teams raises questions about the continuity of care for Maui people.

All of Maui’s population will be affected by this move, as Kaiser patients will now have to join the patients already seeking care at the limited remaining options on the island. Hawaii taxpayers will have concerns as well—Maui Memorial Medical Center receives millions of dollars a year in State tax dollars.

Thank you to all our supporters in the community, and mahalo for standing with us.