Wa Bariatric Center Closing

How surprising to get a letter from Valley Medical Center (Renton) that they are closing the Washington Bariatric & Weight Loss Clinic.

I had my surgery there in November and was (am) happy with their program.  The letter says the closure is due to the number of other clinics offering WLS and the fact that the self-pay patients (aka me) aren't coming in the numbers they need. 

It's dissapointing to not make it through the first year of follow ups in the program, but since my primary care doc and I are monitoring my progress including vitamin levels I don't feel like I'm without medical care.

(Also, it's ironic that as I type the the advertising banner at the top of the page is for VMC - Wa Bariatric...)

Do you know if the surgeons are staying at VMC ? The reason I ask is that I chose to do my surgery at Virgina Mason in Seattle but counted on there being knowlegable doctors at VMC. In case I had some issues that needed an emergency room. I live 5 minutes from there.

The letter says that they "hope" the doctors will stay at Valley Med doing other services, which sounds questionable.  

I think that most (good) hospitals are familiar with bariatric post-op patients, it won't mean that we aren't in charge of being vocal about our 'special" insides, but I wouldn't be overly stressed about the loss of the clinic for emergency care.

I heard they were closing down their bariatric program.  I also heard this isn't  the first time they have done this.  My understanding is they shut down their bariatric program a couple other times and then brought it back. 

It seems strange to me.

are some of those surgeons the same ones that were at the Wish Center when it closed and left everyone hanging?