VSH Meeting Fact Check!

At Friday’s all-employee VSH meeting with State officials, Sec’y of the Administration Spaulding seemed surprised by employee accusations that members of the Shumlin Administration were on-record earlier in 2011 talking about wanting to build a new 40-plus-bed hospital in central VT. He shouldn’t be. VSEA found these press quotes and shares them with you:

April 6, 2011 (Times Argus): “We’re targeting between 40 and 45 (beds),” [Mental Health Commissioner Chrstine Oliver] said, noting that plan was contingent on the ability to develop additional beds elsewhere in the state.

June 28, 2011 (Free Press) — "That is what we are working on right now," Oliver said. The Department of Mental Health is now considering replacing the 54-bed Vermont State Hospital with a new psychiatric hospital adjacent to Central Vermont Medical Center in Berlin.