STAND. COM. REP. NO. 410

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 1724

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2007

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 1724 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT MAKING AN APPROPRIATION FOR THE WAIANAE COAST COMPREHENSIVE HEALTH CENTER EMERGENCY ROOM,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to provide for the continuation of 24-hour a day emergency care services to residents of Waianae.

     Specifically, this measure appropriates $1,500,000, for each year of the 2007-2009 fiscal biennium to the Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center as a grant pursuant to chapter 42F, Hawaii Revised Statutes.

     Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Hawai‘i Primary Care Association, and the Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center.

     Your Committee finds that the Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center is the only full service medical center on the Waianae coast.  The Health Center is a vital resource for our State emergency preparedness with respect to natural disasters, pandemics and other disasters.  It provides an essential staging area to fly patients in trauma to Queen's Medical Center.  Its emergency room is one of the most heavily utilized on Oahu.

     Your Committee finds the Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center serves primarily low-income, uninsured and under insured patients and expends a great deal of its resources caring for the large number of homeless people in the area. 

     Your Committee further finds that without adequate funding, the Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center may have to eliminate essential emergency, lab, and radiology services, leaving community residents vulnerable to life threatening health situations.  Therefore, your Committee finds that the appropriations made by this measure are an important use of state resources.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Health that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1724 and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Health,

____________________________

DAVID Y. IGE, Chair