that has had enough parking, no matter how many spaces the project and provide. this will add even more congestion andincreasing safetyr pedestrians. patience, visitors, and staff will be particularly vulnerable at night. as a labor and delivery nurse, i am concerned about the distance my patients will have to travel and delays that may arise having to get to the hospital in an emergency. i feel the move will further isolate and already underserved community. even more distressing is the thought of one of our patients delivering in the street or on a bus, trying to get across town to our facility, the new facility. concentrating services in one part of the city also poses a significant risk in case of a disaster such as an earthquake. if van ness is blocked, the

hospital will not be accessible. i want to work in a earthquake- safe environment, but feel other options should be explored to serve the community as a whole, rich, poor, the uninsured, and the injured. thank you for listening to me. >> thank you all for coming. >> good evening, members of the planning commission and health commission. i have been a registered nurse for the past 30 years. for the past 13, i have worked cpmc's labor and delivery unit. i am concerned about the plan to downsize st. luke and concentrate specialty services at cathedral hill.

whether than improving patient outcomes, this would take away convenient accessibility from patients who lived in the southeastern part of san francisco. this would cause a delay in getting to the medical facility and potentially poor outcomes. cpmc's analysts claim looking specialty services in one place improves patient outcomes, but this is unclear. for example, as a labor and delivery nurse it is extremely rare to have a liver patient who has cancer. the oncology physician would be readily available to come to our facility for" and management. prioritizing this rare occurrence over many patients' access to care does not make sense. i propose that st. luke's remain a full-service hospital, with expansion to include some specialty services, and that the grand plan for cathedral hill be downsized. thank you for your time and consideration.

>> good evening. i want to read a statement from mary, who had to leave because she works. my name is jane martin. as a nurse working at st. luke's hospital for more than 35 years, i would love to tell you how it is to work there. currently, st. luke's hospital represents a segregated form of health care and feels like a third world country when you walk through the halls. we take care of people struggling with drug addictions, alcoholics, and people overwhelmed with psychological issues. there are no resources for these patients. consequently, there are limited resources for staff to care for them. we do our best, but many times it does not feel like it is working. i still love with a specialty service located at st. luke's hospital, would have a better player mixed to provide better care for all our patience. it just seems fair to me.

i want to say she has been a wonderful advocate as a nurse and has come under fire for speaking out at hearings like this time and time again. it is amazing that she continues to do it despite the harassment she experiences. >> our next speakers are [names] please all three come up to the side. >> good evening, commissioners. i have been a cpmc employee for over 30 years. i am a member of the union. i supported the cathedral hill building because it will help put service workers like me to better fit our patients.

the current facilities are outdated. they are too old to handle the proper cooking equipment needed to feed hundreds of patients daily. in recent years, the patient population of pacific has grown a lot. we now serve 200 to 350 patients every meal. we need to install more grills, a steamer to do the job. as union shop steward, we have asked cpmc to upgrade the equipment, but they cannot because the kitchen does not have the necessary ventilation to support the new equipment. as a result, food service workers struggle to serve food on time to patients. in the last four months, we had to make food trays 1300 times because food was too cold to eat by the time it reached the

patient. that does not make patience happy at all. as food service workers, we pride ourselves on delivering good, healthy meals to help patients heal their index. i believe with the new cathedral held project, we can do so more consistently. as a union shop steward, i will make sure to meet with the management regularly to ensure that we do that. we have formed a food and nutrition committee to review the issue regarding the food- service department to provide the best for our patients. please do not allow an opportunity for access to health fadeaway. >> good evening and thank you.

i am a registered nurse in post- acute services at cpmc for over 15 years. last september, i spoke to the planning commissioners to outline the current shortage of beds in san francisco, and described cpmc's proposal to cut a% of -- 80% of sniff beds. they said they will include some 100% more in the final plans. we feel like the foster child for many years now. we have enjoyed live notices, partial closures, and a reduction in ancillary staff. where our beds were slated to be completely closed in 2009, that sniff is even in the plans would not have happened without the tireless work of the post-acute

nurses, the concerned community, and political advocacy groups. the concern i have now is cpmc's they mention of other community or campus-based beds. there is a difference between a hospital base and a freestanding base. the patients we care for have central lines at the bedside. we have ambulatory dialysis. we have chronic conditions and acute conditions. we care for primarily are mostly poor or elderly or disabled patients on medicare and medical. we have strokes and heart and circulatory diseases, cancer, respiratory diseases, kidney diseases. we see post-transplant. they are acute and they are ill, and they are not appropriate for community-based snifs.

they need one attached to the hospital. thank you. >> followed by [reading names] >> i have been a pediatrician at st. luke's hospital for the past 11 years. i last spoke to the help commission three years ago, in strong opposition to the proposed closure of our beloved hospital. i am now happy to have the opportunity to return and support the cpmc plans to rebuild. i represent my fellow physicians and the nurses and therapists who have the privilege of caring for children every day. the dedication and passion that we brought to the save st. luke's effort continues. morale is high as we look to the future. we have been working closely with the architects and administrators to ensure that the communities we serve a

continue have -- continue to have access to medical care through the rebuilding process. this is a state of the art facility where we can provide quality care. the will be separate child- friendly rooms for families, electronic medical records, and dedicated laboratory and radiation services. these advances will help us see more patients more efficiently. the labor and delivery and postpartum units have been expanded to safely deliver babies into the loving arms of their community. many design improvements will help us improve patient care. i am a mother of three young girls raised to be part of the mission neighborhood. st. luke's is our hospital, our families, our friends, our school community. the simple truth is we need this hospital, and we need to begin rebuilding it now.

thank you very much. president olague: thank you. >> good evening, commissioners, madam director, department of public health. i am the executive director of mission neighborhood centers, a nonprofit multi-purpose community-based organization in the mission community and an anchor institution. we provide services to low income, primarily hispanic families. that includes higher-risk youngsters, headstart families, and 1200 seniors from the intermission and the excelsior. we operate 10 different facilities. most recently, we opened a center in bayview hunters point through a collaborative effort. as you are well aware, but you hunters point is probably the most toxic area in the city and

county of san francisco. it is also the area that most low-income folks are moving to. in response to primarily the relocation of low-income families in the mission, we formed a collaborative and introduced a continuum of care facility, providing services to 34 children, all children of working, poor, low-income families. i am proud to say we are here this evening in support of the rebuild plans of cpmc, including the rebuild of st. luke's hospital. we are not here to tell cpmc how to work with community, but rather to say that we appreciate that cpmc knocked on our door when we first moved in to bayview hunters point and asked how they could assist in

providing services directly to the bayview child health center, the only child facility in the bayview hunters point operated by cpmc. we are here again to say thank- you to cpmc. they are reaching out to low- income working people. we are here to support their rebuild plants. thank you very much and good evening. [applause] president olague: thank you. michael smithwick, followed by jon daniel. >> i am dr. richard gibbs. with my wife dr. krishna gibbs, we founded and still administrate the san francisco free clinic. when we opened 16 years ago, we put out the call to the medical community for a project that would only serve people with no health insurance of any kind.

we got an overwhelming response. over 155 positions, doctors, and their staff offered to help providing care to the uninsured. 95% of those responses came from california pacific medical center. in the 17 years the clinic has been open, we have treated thousands and thousands of people with no health insurance. cpmc has donated x-rays, mammograms, colonoscopy is, exercise tolerance tests, encouragement, help us to apply for grants, and literally hundreds of specialty visits that have been donated to our patience when needed. the have been a huge part of our ability to deliver care. they are good people. they knocked on our door. i tell a similar story to the gentleman that just spoke. they knocked on our door and offered to help. it has been tremendous, freely given, never asking anything in

return. it has literally been hundreds of services donated from every level of the hospital, from the nursing staff to the position staff. my hope is that you will agree with their plans for rebuilding. thank you. president olague: if i called your name and you can make your way to the microphone, that would be great. >> good evening. my name is gordon mar, with jobs for justice, a coalition of community and labor organizations in san francisco, working together to build a strong economy for all san franciscans. we have joined with the good neighbor coalition and the coalition for health care planning in san francisco, in sort of a unified community and

labor effort around cpmc's development plan. collectively, our coalitions represent over 70 community and labor organizations here in the city, with direct representation of tens of thousands of residents, particularly low- income residents. we have come together there has been concerned about -- we have come together with concern about the jobs that will open up, and wanting to make sure there will be full access for disadvantaged san francisco residents, and other serious concerns about the affordable housing and cpmc's commitment to the bill in its obligation to the affordable housing policies.

also, the need for significant community benefits to the tenderloin and central city residents that will be impacted by the naval hospital on cathedral hill. we have major concerns about the project. we have been meeting since january. we had come to the conclusion that those meetings have not been productive, because we've not really seen any indication from the cpmc reps that they are willing to take our concerns around these broad range of issues seriously and compromise. that is why so many of us are here today, opposing the plan. president olague: please clear the doorways. it is creating a fire hazard. thank you.

there are lots of shares. if you can move to the other side if you choose to stand up. >> my name is michael smithwick. i am the executive director of my tree compassionate care, an aids hospice located in the castro area, just a few blocks down the hill from the cpmc davies campus. i am here to support poured the rebuild plan. they have been providing care to san francisco as with late- stage age. we serve low-income women and men from all over the city, most of whom have exhausted their financial resources and have nowhere else to go. today, we have 15 residents, and over the course of the year we serve 57 franciscans. since our inception, we have

served almost 1000 san franciscans that have been facing advanced aids. cpmc and my treat have a vision for compassionate care. we believe no one should die alone. we meet the needs of many residents who cannot afford to pay for such care during their transition into death. cpmc has provided us with financial and programmatic support. we know the future, especially facing federal cuts. this is a cutback to services such as ours. that is why cpmc is so important to the stability of our organization. aside from being a community partner, i also live a few

blocks from the davies campus and was involved for several years in the cpmc outreach to the community to develop the campus in a way that is positive for the community, and from my perspective very positive for pedestrians. i have served in the past on the board of all -- board of walk san francisco. they listened to having a wide sidewalk on noe street and a facility that encourages walking to public transit, which personally i feel very strong about. as an individual in the neighborhood, i encourage you to support the rebuild plan cpmc has presented to you. thank you. >> the next speaker after this

will be michael daniels and marc anthony. >> good evening. thank you, members of the health and planning commissions. my name is dr. sam michaels. i appreciate this opportunity to address you. over my 18 years at st. luke's, staff leadership positions, including chair of anesthesia, chief of the medical staff, and medical director of the st. luke's campus. as an emissary envoys of the physicians of saint luke, i wish to acknowledge and thank cpmc and the city of san francisco for saving some lives. the blue-ribbon panel achieve by and from all interested parties, medical, political, community, and a remarkable result. over the last two years, the department chairs have been working with architects and planners on our new facility.

the medical staff from a supports the proposed plans. as this plan has crystallized, we see it does what it was supposed to do. it preserves critical service lines to a state of the art facility through tertiary distribution of services. st. luke's can access and a bill itself of incredible support from the other campuses, which is already happening. lastly, while maintaining critical inpatient service lines, it also includes a robust plan for the direction medicine is taking, which is an outpatient and preventative care. in all my time, i have never seen the quality of care better than it is today. i am glad to play a role in -- play a role in partnering with cpmc to achieve this safety. i am optimistic we can continue to serve the needs of our community. respectfully request to give your full support to this plan and that you shepherd it

expeditiously through the permit process. thank you. >> good evening, commissioners. my name is mike daniels. i am the president of the merrimack academy. we serve 115 students, along with 116 alumni in high school and college. i am here to stress cpmc's commitment to the needy in the tenderloin. it is built upon a strong foundation of a long partnership with the academy, providing comprehensive counseling and help programming -- health programming that includes a nine-person team of counselors that provide in-kind services that make possible for over 50% of our student body to receive

counseling support. for the kids of the tenderloin, to have an opportunity to speak with professional, dedicated counselors about the situation they are experiencing, about the challenges that are facing makes a tremendous difference. i have no doubt it is in direct correlation to the success we are able to have with our kids. we have 70% of our college-aged students in a four-year university. it is because of partnerships like that which we have with cpmc which make possible the work we do. the partnership also includes a faculty member that is donated by cpmc that does health and nutrition program in with our students and their families, reminding them the importance of healthy eating and healthy living. i am happy to be here for these reasons in support of rebuilding cpmc, and asked to do the same. along with other community

partners you have heard from, especially in this last portion of the evening, i think cpmc -- i thank cpmc for their commitment to our neighborhood. thank you. >> [reading names] >> my name is mark antony. i in the community organizer with community housing partnership. i am in a unique situation. i used to cook for california pacific medical center. i also worked for cathedral hill as well. i am sharing some highlights on recapping -- steve wool made statements earlier, and we are basically working on the same team. we want open doors to the community, an increase in charity care, at stopping price gouging, and have access to

high-level care and support for the community. i believe we have a potential world class hospital coming to the neighborhood. we need to be treated and served as world class. that is all i am going to say. >> [speaking chinese]

>> good evening. i am a san francisco resident. in 2006, i was stricken with an eye disease of cataracts. i was admitted into cpmc and was given an operation which eventually gave back my sight. >> [speaking chinese] >> i was a low-income person with no qualifying medical insurance, but with the help of the program, along with cpmc and the lions club, i was given the opportunity to have service for free.

>> [speaking chinese] >> for all my gratitude, i truly believe that cpmc's dedication to social responsibility is genuine and voluntary. in this age of increasing demand for medical services, i believe the extension that cpmc is seeking will do much good for the public for a long time to come. >> [speaking chinese] >> please give cpmc your favorable consideration. thank you. [applause]

>> please come up towards the front. >> good evening, commissioners. i am the chairman of obstetrics and gynecology at cpmc for the last 12 years. i have been in charge of maternity care for about the half the births in this city for 17 years. as we have grown to 6000 births, as our services have become so attractive, what has kept me up late at night worrying is our lack of an intensive care unit on the california campus, so that we have to transfer very ill mothers to the pacific campus, should that arise in labor and delivery. we are back and forth if the pregnant mother is on the pacific and. last year, we had a crisis with h1n1