A
MEMORIAL
EXPRESSING SUPPORT FOR ST. VINCENT
HOSPITAL IN SANTA FE.
WHEREAS, St. Vincent hospital
is New Mexico's oldest hospital and has served the northern region since 1865
by providing compassionate, quality health care to all members of its
community, regardless of ability to pay; and
WHEREAS, St. Vincent provided fourteen
million three hundred thousand dollars ($14,300,000) in care in fiscal year
2002 to the uninsured and under-insured, and more than six million dollars
($6,000,000) in direct care and preventive services to regional health partners
and the entire community; and
WHEREAS, more than twenty-two percent
of the two hundred fifty thousand people in St. Vincent Hospital's twenty
thousand square mile service area live in poverty, and consequently more than
thirty percent of the patients treated at St. Vincent Hospital are uninsured;
and
WHEREAS, the health of a community
depends upon the physical, emotional and mental health of all its people, and a
full range of health care services must remain available and accessible to
everyone;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the important
contribution that the administration, physicians, employees and volunteers of
St. Vincent Hospital make to the well-being of the people of northern New
Mexico be commended; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that St.
Vincent Hospital be acknowledged as a valued community asset; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the
necessity to protect northern New Mexico's community health care safety net,
including direct care and preventive services, be recognized; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that helping
St. Vincent Hospital fulfill its compassionate mission be supported; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of
this memorial be transmitted to the governor, the secretaries of health and
human services, the mayor of the city of Santa Fe, the Santa Fe city council,
St. Vincent hospital and the St. Vincent hospital foundation.