UMC, Children’s fail to reach agreement

no deal — and it’s time to move on. those words coming from a frustrated commissioners court this afternoon after university medical center and el paso children’s failed to make a deal. in a statement children’s says, they’re not to blame. “el paso children’s hospital is stunned by this development because we accepted the terms of their thursday offer by their deadline. therefore, el paso children’s hospital believes any statement to the contrary is not accurate.” good evening… i’m rick cabrera. estela is off tonight. the deadlines came and went. last monday, wednesday, friday, and again today! umc set a deadline of 12-noon for children’s to either accept or reject its offer to save the bankrupt hospital — terms children’s had the whole weekend to review. but at 11:58– children’s responded with another counter offer. the county says its done negotiating. abc-seven’s ashlie rodriguez spoke to commissioners about what went wrong. she has our complete coverage. umc said today it’s gone as far as it could it go but children’s just wanted too much. commissioner david stout told me that the county even made major concessions –but at the end of the day they had to protect the taxpayer. umc sent over its final term sheet on thursday. children’s responded by friday — and today they discussed it. the proposals are confidential but we do know that umc was willing to give children’s 45 days to find a third party that could help fortify its finances. because children’s rejected that offer — stout says it now looks like it will be up to the umc partnership to save this hospital: david stout, county commissioner: i think the concessions that we made were very generous. we came very close but i think they wanted a little too much. so now we move on to litigation. the county doesn’t want children’s to be a wing at umc — but judge veronica escobar told me there is no more independent children’s hospital. children’s is actively looking for a partner to survive– and umc believes it’s still the best candidate for the job. ashlie, thank you. tomorrow — a big day in court for both parties. umc will be asking for permission to present its plan to restructure children’s. coming up at ten — a preview of tomorrow’s hearing, including an element of the deal the county hospital took off the table that children’s says should be back. a policewoman in las