Doctor Greg Salard has made a plea for help from the Wrangell Borough Assembly in his ongoing struggle to regain his hospital privileges.
During Tuesday night’s board meeting, Salard requested the city and hospital board members look over the hospital’s insurance policy regarding legal representation. Salard expressed displeasure about the current attorney retained by the insurance company because it’s the same one who advised the previous hospital board, which was recently mostly recalled.
“I’ve got a lot of trouble following the logic in allowing Garvey, Schubert and Barer and attorneys Hillman and Rose to advice the new board. That group advised the medical board when the administrator suspended my privileges initially in April of 2011 when all this started,” he said.
Salard said he is concerned the new board will not get what he considers “good advice” when evaluating reinstating his hospital privileges. He wants city and borough officials to investigate the insurance policy to see if the hospital board is able to choose its own legal representation rather than letting that decision be made by an outside entity. Wrangell Mayor Jeremy Maxand said he plans to investigate the issue.
“I can tell you that we are well aware of the frustration and difficulty working with that particular law firm. And we will check on the status of his engagement of issues at the hospital, but we will look into it and get back with you on it. Because there’s a couple different dimensions to this and there’s some factors that may or may not have the ability to retain their own counsel,” he said.
Salard suggested possibly having the city attorney also offer advice to the hospital board. He said regardless of the legal representation, he feels confident in the new board. Salard stressed once again he has done nothing wrong and needs his privileges back to continue helping his patients. The hospital board has a special meeting scheduled for October 3 where members plan to discuss this issue, but any real action will be dependent on a new hospital administrator being in place.
