I would like to commend Candace Richerson for speaking out loud about a sore subject that most often goes whispered about, grumbled about, but seldom mentioned in bold print (“
We used to have a righteous hospital in Durango, runs by an order of caring nuns, the Sisters of Mercy. It was a quality medical outfit; I ought to know, our son was born there 40 years ago. When you came in with even the most puny complaint, you knew they cared about you, the nurses, the doctors, the nuns.
The slow transformation of that wonderful community hospital into an uncaring, impersonal corporate entity is one of the saddest tales of our county. It is a tale of a cumbersome bureaucracy, interminable tricked-up online procedures, non-transparent billing, and an acute obsession with PR and real estate. Above all, it is a tale of the corporate spirit of Centura.
If you have recently had the misfortune of seeking treatment at the ER department, you would surely know. Mercy/Centura is a poster child for what capitalism and private “enterprise” can do to a small community, thus a resounding call for “socialized” medicine. If this is what we have come to expect, then give us back the nuns – or Sweden, the U.K., France, Germany, Denmark, Israel – any time.
Tom Givon
Ignacio
