By KEVIN RICH
Special to the PRESS
The South Padre Island Economic Development Corporation (EDC) began preliminary plans to assess the feasibility of developing a ‘micro-hospital’ on the Island.
The topic came up during a Feb. 22 meeting, when the EDC considered an $18,000 funding request to perform a feasibility study on locating a micro-hospital on the Island. Dr. Joe Ybarra, EMS Director for the Island addressed the Board via video conferencing regarding the issue. “We need emergency services on South Padre Island,” stated Ybarra. “It’s painful to see people having to leave the Island to get medical care.”
Ybarra proposed the need to do a feasibility study to determine what would be appropriate for the Island. He noted the seasonal nature of the Island, with times where there is much greater need for medical services than others. “In order for a business to sustain itself there needs to be a sufficient body of patients,” explained Ybarra.
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1 comments
People are not only leaving the Island but the area as well for good medical. IMHO there are only a handful of really good doctors in the area. The highly qualified doctors want to be in the top rated hospitals in larger cities. Unfortunately, this area tends to get the doctors who couldn’t get into the more esteem hospitals and others who have had malpractice and other “issues” relating to their license. Regardless if this happens or not, finding good qualified people is going to be hard.