ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, February 24, 1997 TAG: 9702240068
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-2 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH
SOURCE: Associated Press
Operation Blessing International, Pat Robertson's medical relief group, has dismissed its core medical team, including the chief doctor leading its medical missions.
The termination of 11 employees resulted from a disagreement about the type of missions the organization should pursue, said Gene Kapp, vice president of public relations for the Christian Broadcasting Network and Robertson's spokesman.
Paul R. Williams, a neonatologist and the organization's chief medical officer, wanted to perform medical missions in remote areas of the world, where Operation Blessing's $25 million ``flying hospital'' could not travel, Kapp said. The hospital is an L-1011 jet equipped with three surgical units.
In January, for instance, the medical staff of Operation Blessing went to the Amazon River in South America without the plane. Instead, the group took boats up the river and treated people in small villages on the route.
Operation Blessing's management disagreed with the medical team's approach.
``It is our intent to continue with the flying hospital. The airplane is the focal point of our medical missions,'' Kapp said.
Operation Blessing was started as part of Robertson's CBN, which is based in Virginia Beach. It became a separate organization in 1993.
According to the organization's financial statement for fiscal year 1996, it received $41 million in contributions, including an $11.8 million grant from CBN.
Williams and Dr. Christopher L. Feucht, who supervised the airborne medical team, were part of the group terminated Feb. 14. Both are listed on the organization's 1996 financial forms as among the top salaried employees.
Robert Fanning, Operation Blessing's chief operating officer, described the departures as ``a parting of friends down the road. No one is mad at anyone.''
Williams, contacted by phone late Friday, declined to speak in detail about his termination, but said he agreed with Kapp's description of events.
He said he and some of the other staff plan to start a new organization which will make medical trips in remote, rural areas. ``CBN is desiring to focus on the plane. We desire to expand in other areas,'' he said. ``With the plane, you have to be in pretty big cities and large population centers.''
Operation Blessing, which now has 37 employees, does not plan to hire replacements, Fanning said. Instead, it will use volunteer surgeons, doctors and nurses, and focus its missions on performing surgeries that don't require a hospital stay.
The group does not have a date or destination for its next mission with the medically equipped jet. The plane is in Tijuana, Mexico, for scheduled maintenance, Fanning said.
Last fall, on the plane's most recent mission to Ukraine, a battery failed and was repaired at an airport in Shannon, Ireland. ``It was not a flight-threatening or mission-threatening event,'' Kapp said.
LENGTH: Medium: 61 linesby CNB