Letter: Wrong prescription

As a lifelong community member who is also an employee of Baystate Franklin Medical Center, I went to the March 6 MNA-sponsored forum to hear some of the community’s ideas for our hospital.

Instead of ideas, I heard suggestions for a new slogan for the ongoing contract dispute, which should be settled in private. The forum was not to generate ideas for the hospital; it was to gather support for the union nurses. It seems to me what the nurses are wanting in their contract has nothing to do with the concerns of community members (like getting to Springfield while there is bridge construction).

There were some things said that were not factual. For example, the urologist left to return to his home state, not because he was overworked by Baystate. Another example is that BFMC does provide pediatric care: in the nursery, surgery and emergency departments and sometimes on the med-surg unit. This all depends on what the child needs, and the choice of the family, with many families preferring to go to a specialty hospital.

I think we are a great community hospital, providing the type of care that community hospitals across the country provide in terms of specialty services. We are neighbors caring for neighbors, and we are proud of it. The union’s public bashing of the hospital isn’t helping; it is hurting many of who work here and who want to get care here.