Let’s go back in time to October of 2023, when Christus Spohn announced it was ending its Emergency Medicine Residency Program.
The program, which has been around since 2007, is a three-year learning opportunity for residents at the Texas A&M School of Medicine. It allowed them to practice in a hospital emergency department.
Christus Spohn said they didn’t have the resources to sustain the program on a long-term basis so they planned to end it in June of 2026. That led to an uproar from the community, Spohn physicians and other medical staff, as well as from city and from county leaders
But on Dec. 1, 2023, a deal was made. The Nueces County Hospital District (NCHD) agreed to pay Christus Spohn $21 million over six years to keep the program going.
Fast forward a year later, Nueces County Commissioner and Connie Scott’s Special Committee member Brent Chesney is raising a big question. What happens when that six year agreement comes to an end? Chesney was seeking answers to avoid putting students, doctors and the community in limbo once again.