[Occupymendocino] FW: [MCN-Announce]- Important hospital meeting, please email the Board members

[John]

-----Original Message-----
From: announce-bounces at lists.mcn.org [mailto:announce-bounces at lists.mcn.org] On Behalf Of Andy Wellspring
Sent: Sunday, June 18, 2017 8:17 AM
To: Announce
Subject: [MCN-Announce]- Important hospital meeting, please email the Board members

Hello folks,

This Thursday, June 22, is an important meeting about the Fort Bragg
hospital.  It will be held at 6pm in Town Hall (note this is a different
venue than most hospital meetings).  The sole topic they will vote on is
whether or not to close the OB department (Obstetrics, Labor and
Delivery).  I strongly believe we need to keep the OB department in Fort
Bragg.  Please come to the meeting with a "Keep OB" sign, and please email
the Board members, listed below.

I hope you will stand in support of continuing births on the coast; this is
an important backup to have in place for people who choose to do homebirths
on the coast (no OB = no legal homebirths nearby!) and it is an important
hospital function that serves many people who cannot afford to travel
inland to Ukiah several times or more during the course of a pregnancy.

Furthermore, the Mendocino Coast Clinic has offered to pay the salary of an
additional OB doctor and Pediatrician if the hospital commits to keeping
the department! This will mean the hospital can cease paying high fees for
"on call" doctors who sometimes have to travel to Fort Bragg and charge a
high rate.

I haven't heard anyone pushing an argument that OB should be closed but
some on the Board feel it should be, the data is not clear that OB even
costs a lot, and the clinic is willing to make the department even cheaper
to run.

This shouldn't even come to a vote (because OB is clearly needed and not
expensive after the clinic's offer) but the activists who have been
involved the longest are not optimistic about Thursday's vote, they foresee
the Board voting against the community and closing OB!

I am new to joining this struggle, I have such a strong feeling that
reducing the size and scope of the hospital will lead to further
reductions.  Losing the OB department will make it difficult for young
families to keep living here, over time they will move inland because this
will not be a place to have a baby and raise a family.  This will hurt the
economy and the school system, and all of us!

Thanks for reading, and acting,

Andy


Board members are elected officials, and we need to let them know how
important OB is for the community.  Please email them, make it clear you
stand for keeping OB!

Steve Lund: Slund at mcdh.net
Kevin Miller: Kmiller at mcdh.net
Peter Glusker: Pglusker at mcdh.net
Kitty Bruning: Kbruning at mcdh.net
Lucas Campos: Lcampos at mcdh.net


*P.S.: If anyone knows Dr. Kevin Miller, please have a heart-to-heart
conversation with him.  He is pushing hardest for this and I do not
understand his perspective.


Here is a sample email (be careful copying and pasting directly as the
second paragraph starts with "As a man," from my perspective):

Hi I’m ______. I live in ________. I’m emailing to urge you and the rest of
the Board to vote NO on closing OB. The OB department is important to our
community. Without it, women and babies will suffer and there will not be
access to reproductive care for many people. We need the hospital. I want
to support the hospital, and I want the hospital to support the OB
department.  The community wants the OB department so badly that the
Mendocino Coast Clinic has offered to pay for an Obstetrician and a
Pediatrician, dramatically lowering the Hospital's costs of running the OB
department.  Please say YES to the MCC's offer and please vote NO on
closing OB.

As a man, I know that I won't personally need the services of an
Obstetrician, but I care about everyone in my community and I know that if
the coast does not have the ability to birth babies it will likely lead to
a dangerous situation for individual pregnant mothers and babies, and over
time will certainly lead to fewer young families on the coast, which will
weaken our economy and our school system.  We need a plan to build a robust
community, recruiting more families, not a plan that makes the coast a
wild, dangerous place to try and live.

 Thank you.
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