Health

Senators Balk At Schneider Hospital's 'Urgent' Request For Additional Funding

ST. THOMAS -- The testimony of Dr. Bernard Wheatley, C.E.O. of the Schneider Regional Medical Center (S.R.M.C.), was delivered as bluntly as possible on Wednesday at the Earl B. Ottley Legislative Hall during a budget hearing: "S.R.M.C. is facing several urgent operational and infrastructure challenges. If financial relief is not immediately provided by the local Virgin Islands Government, there will be significant impacts to the services S.R.M.C. provides to the people of the Virgin Islands. "S.R.M.C. recognizes that the Government of the Virgin Islands is facing severe financial distress and difficult choices about how to allocate the territory’s limited financial resources. We fully appreciate that the government’s ability to access additional funding through the bond market is currently limited and that in order to fund the hospital more, something else will have to get funded less. But we are sure that this body and the Virgin Islands community as a whole will agree that healthcar...