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Improvement Association Asks Maui Memorial to Clarify Plans for West Maui

Lahaina-February 7, 2005-Moving to bring some clarity to proposals for new health care facilities, the West Maui Improvement Foundation has invited Wesley Lo, chief executive officer of Maui Memorial Medical Center, to respond to a series of questions it says are key to understanding how each might play a role in providing acute emergency care to residents and visitors.

Supported by the West Maui Taxpayers Association, the improvement foundation this month launched a "Golden Hour Fund" and will hold a major fund raiser April 8 to provide the initial monies for an acute emergency care full service hospital to be built in Lahaina.

"The biggest need," says Foundation President Joe Pluta, "is for a full-service hospital that provides acute emergency care in every sense, including stabilizing and then treating patients right here in West Maui through on-site surgery or other procedures. "Adding emergency acute care in West Maui will also improve care island-wide since it will take some of the pressure off Maui Memorial's crowded emergency room," he said.

Pluta noted that since Maui Land & Pineapple Company announced its intent to donate land to Maui Memorial to build a medical facility in Kapalua neither he nor the community have been able to learn specifics about this new proposal. "With alternate proposals on the table, we need the facts so the community knows how its needs will be met," he said.

Key questions include location, specific services to be provided, cost, sources of funding, timetable until completion, availability of infrastructure and who will manage it. Earlier this month, Pluta called for a heath care summit to bring health care providers together to discuss the same issues on March 10.

"Our hope is that the March meeting can still be held, though limited to key decision makers. We decided to reach out to the community faster and so we have added the news conference Feb 11." .

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