To the Editor:
I feel compelled to write regarding the condition of our hospital. There are holes in the walls and hallways with damaged plaster and paint throughout the building.
This is our health facility — how can this facility be kept sanitary, or do the management even try, or do they want to?
As a business person in the apartment rental business, I could not be allowed to rent to tenants and ask them to live in these conditions. The health department simply would not allow it.
This similar approach was used with the Souris Valley facility. It was simply left to decay with no care or maintenance given until demolition was its only recourse.
We’ve been hearing about a new hospital for how many years now, and although the Hospital Foundation has raised its money, there has been little interest shown by the government, and with today’s economic conditions that we keep hearing about, how much longer might we wait? There hasn’t even been a hint of a location, let alone anything else.
It is my belief support will slow for this project until something concrete develops, and in the meantime our health care facility will continue to decay.
I know families of persons who have passed on and also of people living who will not contribute for a hospital until decisions are made to start things happening.
How can we continue to turn a blind eye to this hospital? How comfortable can we feel about having a family member or friends or other loved ones to be cared for in something that’s beginning to look more like a Third World hospital? And as a side thought, what does this do for working morale for the health care providers?
Care and maintenance needs to be done to this building, and not just leave it to the same fate as Souris Valley with the hopes that if enough plaster falls off the walls, and the holes get bigger (to hide more bugs), that it can be knocked down quicker.
Someday we will likely get a new hospital, but don’t hold your breath as it takes many years after some decisions start and then years after before construction will take place. In the meantime, our health care facility is being left to decay or maybe we will revisit the old hospital on the hill. It is likely in better shape anyway.
Don Schlosser,
Weyburn
