Negotiations get going between UCSF, SF General. (San Francisco General Hospital, University of California Medical Center)

SAN FRANCISCO -- San Francisco General Hospital, the city's public hospital, and the University of California San Francisco Medical Center are renegotiating their affiliation agreement, which pays UCSF between $30 million and $40 million annually for medical and teaching services.

They hope to reach a new agreement by June.

If they succeed, it would be the first time since 1959 that the agreement has been altered, city officials say.

Raymond Baxter, Ph.D., San Francisco's director of public health, insists that the negotiations are intended to clarify existing financial relationships and do not reflect dissatisfaction with the current arrangement.

Baxter's department runs General, as well as four other health care divisions. …