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Date Submitted March 26, 2024
Local Healthcare Worker

 

The news this week about “consolidations” at Stringfellow with the RMC system cause great concerns. It is the most recent occurrence of the RMC board telling our community they have our best interests in mind while at the same time doing what is not best for our community but is for RMC’s bottom line.

I fully realise this is a challenging time for hospitals across the country. Governmental rules have decreased reimbursements and many in our community simply can’t afford to pay for their healthcare which RMC must still provide. However RMC should be in the business of providing quality care first and profiting second.

When Jacksonville Hospital was acquired our community was told it was to improve services and it was eventually closed and despite publicly declaring there was no plan for it, RMC quickly gave it to JSU. This left only two emergency rooms in the county and left the north end with less options for care and longer wait times. That was the first reduction in services to our area and to this day means anyone needing an ED on the north end of the county now has an extra 10-15 minutes to get to an ED doctor. That is an eternity in an emergency.

Next RMC acquired Stringfellow and they continue to lessen the services there as they did at Jacksonville. With the loss of the ER and surgery lines Stringfellow can barely be called a hospital at all. An urgent care is not something that belongs at a hospital.

While all these decisions to centralise services at RMC have been happening demand for care have gone up in our community. Ambulances regularly wait hours to drop patients at RMC. We should be expanding services to reduce the stress on the system by finding innovative ways to increase payments to the hospital system. RMC leadership continue to do the easiest thing to help RMC instead of doing the harder right for the community.

I beg all of you for the sake of your children, your neighbours, your family, and yourselves to stop RMC from containing to cut services while telling us they are doing what is best for us.

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