New Hanover County Commissioners held their first public hearing on the future of New Hanover Regional Medical Center. About 100 people attended the hearing at Snipes Academy yesterday.
The first of several planned hearings on a possible sale of the healthcare system included comments from a number of people who expressed their concerns. Residents continue to question the process County Commissioners took to get to this point. About two dozen people spoke.
“I'm concerned about the transparency. There's the fact that the Commissioners adopted a resolution of intent to sell. In my humble opinion, something else could've been done instead, and so that to me means that the majority of the Board is agreed that that's what they want to do.”
Two Medical Center Trustees, Barbara Biehner and Jason Thompson, spoke in favor of moving forward. They are both members of the Partnership Advisory Group, which is five doctors, five hospital trustees, and nine community members. They will study the proposals, and recommend how to proceed.
It will be months before the RFP – Request for Proposal - is sent to five healthcare organizations, which have not yet been identified. Vince Winkel, WHQR News.