Hospital board declines task force proposal

The labor and delivery issue in Demopolis appears all but final after the Tombigbee Healthcare Authority Board of Trustees voted Monday not to recommend a proposal to the city council.

The task force presented the board with a proposal Monday evening that would have called for the establishment of a women’s pavilion to be funded in part by a one-cent sales tax if approved by the Demopolis City Council.

“The Tombigbee Healthcare Authority Board voted not to recommend to the city council the Labor and Delivery Task Force recommendation of requesting a one-cent sales tax increase for L&D,” the board said in a press release. “The board leaves the decision of taxes to the mayor, city council and local constituents. The THA board willingly accepts any unencumbered funds for purposes of the Tombigbee healthcare authority and its overall mission.”

The labor and delivery unit closed last week after a December 2013 vote to shutter the department due to continued financial problems.

“The number of deliveries that we do – between 225 and 260 is what we hoped to accomplish this year – just does not come close to covering the hard cost. Realistically, it’s close to $400,000 of pretty hard loss each year. The reason (we looked at) public funding was that with the financial situation of this hospital, we would not come close to being able to fund labor and delivery year after year after year,” board member Jay Shows said Monday before the panel went into executive session. . “Everybody is wanting to keep it open if possible, but that is the reason the public funding issue came up. The hospital no longer has the funding to float it.”