Last week the Ventura County Board of Supervisors agreed to shut down Santa Paula Hospital's Intensive Care Unit and Obstetrics Unit. This will not only displace many nurses and healthcare staff but it will also take away critical care access for the growing communities of Santa Clara Valley. If a patient arrives to the Emergency Room and needs critical care, they will no longer be able to stay at Santa Paula Hospital ICU unit, the plan would be to transfer them out to Ventura County Medical Center. If a woman arrives in labor, there will not be any services available to deliver her baby, she will need to be transferred out to VCMC as well. 

As a resident of Fillmore for the last 78 years, who has delivered all six of my children at Santa Paula Hospital and have had multiple family members cared for in the ICU at SPH, this notice of closure pains my heart. If the Hospital moves forward with this plan, they say it will help the hospital financially. But the problem with this plan is, yes, maybe there will be some money saved, but what about the lives of those patients who arrive to the emergency room seeking critical care? Will they be able to safely transfer a critical patient to another hospital? What about when there are multiple critical patients? How many hours or days will they have to sit in the Emergency Room waiting for a hospital bed to be available to them in another hospital? Should the community suffer because of the reckless decision being made by hospital administrators who see this as the only way to save revenue? Patient safety should always be the priority.

Please act now and sign the petition to keep services available for our growing community.  The next Board of Supervisors meeting will be held on June 4th, when this petition can be presented. Santa Paula Hospital administrators want to move forward with their plan to close services effective August, 2024. By signing this petition, you are agreeing that our community deserves better. We deserve to have local critical care access available for our families when they are sick and in need of a higher level of care. Women in labor should also have the choice to deliver their babies locally and not have to be transferred to Ventura because of lack of services. If you care about the future of our local Hospital and would like to see services remain open and available to you and your families at Santa Paula Hospital please share and sign this petition today.