To the editor:
Since November I've heard a number of people say on line at the market, or greeting one another for coffee or waiting for a movie to start, "Thank goodness he's gone. Now we can get somewhere without the worry."
At first, I thought they might be talking about the presidential election. No, people were talking of neither of these. People were and are talking about the exit of Stephen Laverty, the much criticized CEO of Northeast Health Systems, (NEHS), the corporation that 14 years ago acquired Addison Gilbert Hospital, our community hospital.
I wish I could share my neighbors' rejoicing at Mr. Laverty's exit, but I am more worried than ever about the potential loss of what has been a lifeline for Cape Ann citizens; here's why I'm more worried than ever.
When NEHS announced its merger with AGH, it declared that the merger would benefit both parties. But almost immediately, NEHS began to dismantle AGH, service by service. NEHS ever made available to the community a detailed accounting of its use of $2 million given by The State Department of Public Health for the protection of emergency surgical and anesthesiologist services at AGH. Having downsized AGH's bed capacity by refusing to use the beds on Steele Two, and having closed several departments, what remains in Gloucester is a shell. Even as such we can still call it our community hospital, it provides only eight services essential under one roof, essential for retaining its license. Now, even that status for AGH is at risk. For example, one of the eight services essential to our hospital's survival is the availability of a surgeon 24/7. Instead, NEHS, without announcing it, sends any patient whom they think might need surgery to Beverly Hospital.
The Gloucester Daily Times said it well in its editorial of Nov. 12, at Stephen Laverty's parting of the ways with NEHS. "The Board of Trustees has thankfully now turned the page by ending Laverty's tenure ...(but) they have only turned one page ... they must begin presenting its staff...with a more open book". For starters the present Board of Trustees needs to be questioned on the very high percentage of Trustees who are physicians and executives employed by NEHS.
What can we do? We can appeal to our elected officials, Sen, Tarr and Rep. Ferrante, to require such a written commitment and such full disclosure. We can publicize what's happening to our health care in The Gloucester Daily Times. We can also come to a meeting of a group of citizens - Partners for Addison Gilbert Hospital - that coalesced in 1996, just a year after NEHS merged with AGH.
Our bid to keep our hospital, even in its diminished form, is in peril. Come to a meeting of Partners for Addison Gilbert Hospital on Tuesday night, Jan. 27, in the Sawyer Free Library in Gloucester from 6:30 to 8:30. For further information, call Peggy O'Malley, RN, at 978-283-9911.
Beverly Quint
Rockport
