HEALTH CARE
Mar. 12, 2012 | Alameda County Supervisor Nadia Lockyer’s recent bout with addiction has obvious personal ramifications after she reportedly entered rehabilitation for drug and alcohol dependency in February. While the shorthanded Board of Supervisors has done its best to move forward in her absence, some of the most vulnerable county residents may now face the consequences of Lockyer’s recent behavior.
As the county continues to find ways to prop up the beleaguered St. Rose Hospital in Lockyer’s district in Hayward, a plan to infuse $2 million in short-term financing may be in jeopardy if she cannot attend Tuesday’s scheduled board meeting.
The plan put forth by the Alameda County Health Care Services agency secured the funding for St. Rose through a proposal to enter into a joint powers agreement with the Washington Health Care District in Fremont, St. Rose and the county. The health care district fronted St. Rose the financing, pending approval by the board of supervisors, albeit by a four-fifths vote.
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Nadia Lockyer
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Ruben Briones, Lockyer’s interim chief of staff, declined to comment on whether Lockyer will appear at Tuesday’s meeting or how her absence might relate to the fate of St. Rose.
Without Lockyer’s participation, according to county sources, there is a very real possibility the proposal fails to garner the unanimous decision, now potentially required. Sources say, keep an eye on Supervisor Keith Carson’s comments on the county’s potential participation. In addition, Supervisor Wilma Chan may register some concerns over how San Leandro Hospital–another county hospital in flux and located in Chan’s district–plays out in this newest scenario to shore up a worsening health care situation in Alameda County.
Although there have been rumors of Lockyer returning to Oak Street on Tuesday, sources also say she is not expected in the supervisor’s chambers.
One way to sidestep Lockyer’s attendance problem would be to simply postpone the item for later in the month. However, in this case, the financial situation at St. Rose may be so dire that inattention from the board of supervisors could inadvertently push it toward insolvency. Alameda County Health Care Services Director Alex Briscoe, in a staff report last week, intimated that Prime Healthcare, a controversial Southern California health care provider known for preying on struggling facilities like St. Rose, may be lying in the weeds ready to purchase the hospital.
Over roughly the past six months, Lockyer’s office has been tireless in attempting to find a solution to help St. Rose, in tandem with earlier proposals to save San Leandro Hospital. A week before news of her bizarre encounter at a Newark hotel in early February, Lockyer had penned an Op-Ed in the Hayward Daily Review in support of St. Rose. One of her last public appearances before entering rehab occurred before the Hayward City Council were she lobbied for their support in saving the local facility.
With Lockyer’s potentially crucial vote absent from tomorrow’s board of supervisor’s meeting, there is no consensus on what may happen next for a critical piece of the county’s health care apparatus covering over 35,000 emergency room patients a year–most of whom lack access sufficient access to health care.
ebcitizen.com 
HAS NADIA RESIGNED YET?! WTF! How much more embarassment before the BOS grows a backbone and asks their Girls Gone Wild colleague to resiign? Come on Wilma as a woman aren't you embarassed by Nadia running around in two counties with her meth head bf? And how long before the guys on the BOS grow a pair and stand up to Bill Lockyer? Do we really need to hear more about Nadia's antics? 4 visits to her bf in jail and she lied to get more time to see him each time. Do we really need to hear they were doing the wild thing? Tell Nadia to resign today and save your board and county further embarassment!
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Nadia Lockyer needs to take some time off….like the rest of her term !!! These are the times when leaders are made, We need leaders not onlookers like Nadia who is getting her info like the rest of us. We need a leader to guide this process to it's conclusion not some idiot chasing her boyfriend around like she's in highschool. How do we recall her sorry ass !!
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I understand the confusion. Those board meetings don't usually go over an hour. The St. Rose agenda item came last. They actually didn't come out of closed session until 5pm yesterday.
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Thank you Steven. The live tweets are great to have and I really appreciate it. mea culpa for not giving you credit when I posted my comment.
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Thank you to the commenter for following yesterday's meeting on twitter. I was on top of it, but yes, that meeting was a monster 5-hour extravaganza. I'll be posting something soon. Lots of new info. The board passed the item, 4-0.
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Oh, don't get me wrong. Prime is nothing but a bottom-feeding cancer on the healthcare system (I know – mixed metaphor), but the chances of it taking over St. Rose at this stage in the process were almost nil.
BTW, MW, unless Richard Blum took a much bigger hit than I think in the downturn, you are off on his net worth by an order of magnitude. I'm almost sure he is a billionaire. Of course, most of what you said is BS, but get your basic facts right.
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By MW:
Since Bill Lockyer came up with about 1.5 million dollars to basically buy the election so that his totally unqualified wife Nadia would be inflicted upon us, perhaps he could now instead decide to do something useful with his money and therefore find a way to donate a few million dollars to St. Rose Hospital.
In fact in general in regard to the big phony windbags, charlatans, and demagogues, er, excuse me, I mean the wealthiest great liberals and wonderful humanitarians who are prominent in the Democratic Party, and such as Bill Lockyer, Dianne Feinstein, and Nancy Pelosi, etc, who say they are in favor of higher taxes, those of them who are multi millionaires could easily afford to donate a considerable portion of their fortunes to help the poor, and instead of being in favor of raising virtually everyone else's taxes.
For instance, Dianne Feinstein and her husband Richard Blum have an official and admitted net worth of not less than about one hundred million dollars, and quite likely also a lot more hidden in such places as Switzerland.
So even if they have only about one hundred million dollars, then they could easily afford to donate eighty million dollars to charity, the poor, and various supposedly underfunded government programs, and then they would have to find a way to “struggle” by on ONLY the remaining twenty million dollars. While I realize it would be difficult, however if they started clipping coupons and occasionally eating a meal at McDonalds rather than an expensive gourmet restaurant, and if necessary even applied for food stamps, more than likely they would be able to survive and quite likely not starve to death.
And Nancy Pelosi and her husband are also extremely wealthy, and also, and just like Dianne Feinstein, could probably afford to donate a few pennies now and then to charity.
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So to the person that keeps talking about the prime “bogeyman”…do you want Prime in your community? If so perhaps you should do some research on them and start with this….www.californiawatch.org/prime
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Briscoe got what he needed so he can make the Prime bogeyman disappear now.
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Was this postponed or approved? Hours into the meeting and no tweet or comment. Lockyer there or attending via conference call?
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So if the Board of Sups can't pass this plan and St. Rose closes, will Lockyer finally resign?
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