We, the health care workers at Maui Memorial Medical Center and the community are deeply concerned about the political climate that is taking shape and the direction in which the hospital seems to be moving. The unions and the state government are making decisions and deals that don’t reflect the hospital staff’s, nor community's values and needs.

We've worked very hard and made tremendous strides to improve the quality of health care services we provide to our community. People experiencing strokes and heart attacks can now be treated emergently, as opposed to having to fly to another island enduring a delay in care. Our advancements have made a significant impact on the quality of life of our residents and safety of our visitors.

Our expanded capabilities have allowed us to recruit quality providers from around the world, for example an oncologist to treat our cancer patients. If the hospital continues with it's plans to cut services, we will all suffer. We will not be able to take care of our families and loved ones, nor our island guests. Decreasing the level of health care services could have a devastating effect on tourism and the local economy as well.

We strongly oppose cutting services in order to save money because it will hurt our community and will impact the quality of care we provide.

We demand that the state and unions include all of us in this critical decision making process. We have not been asked what we think and our voices have not been heard. We are requesting a forum with the Governor, the union and the hospital board of directors, i.e. all entities making these decisions behalf of the hospital staff and the community. Mahalo