Letters to the editor: As Meritus expands, services suffer
As Meritus expands, services suffer
To the editor:
Why does Meritus Medical Center think they have to buy every doctor's office, blood lab and medical supply store, have their own drug stores, medical college, a partnershp with Brooklane and now a connection to the new ball stadium (Feb. 15, 2024 The Herald-Mail)? How much did that cost them?
From my own experiences and from friends' and neighbors' experiences, the service doesn't get any better, sometimes it gets worse. As soon as Meritus' name goes on the door the price of the office visit goes up and the doctors hand you off to a physician's assistant.
The support staff must be in a revolving door, because you see very few of the same faces from one office visit to the next.
Upper management talks about how great they are, but they should be like the TV show Under Cover Boss and go talk to the general public — go to the doctors' offices, ER, blood labs and see some of the things happening. There are excessive wait times in the ER, blood labs with one person doing paperwork and those drawing blood samples who can't find or hit blood veins, and people putting wrong information into medical records.
If you have to be admitted to the hosptial sometimes you have to stay in an ER room or in a hallway until an empty bed and room opens up. There are not enough doctors, nurses and aides to cover the hospital rooms. There are patients being discharged too soon, having to be readmitted the next day for the same symptoms.
You have some good employees, but you have employees with an I don't care attitude, who are doing as little as possible to collect a pay check and who should not be working in the medical field.
There is an old saying — jack of all trades and master of none. It might be a good motto for Meritus Medical Center.
Charles Miller
Boonsboro
Are we better off than we were four years ago? For sure.
To the editor:
Elise Stefanik asked if you were better off today than you were four years ago. Are you kidding me? Republican nitwits have memory-holed an entire pandemic.
Remember not being able to buy toilet paper? Remember corpses stacked in mobile morgues and buried in mass graves? I remember; that was exactly four years ago.
I also remember Trump going golfing, and telling the country to gargle horse paste and inject disinfectant, and now this incompetent former guy wants his job back.
Now, check this out — three years later over 14.8 million jobs have been created. The unemployment rate is down to 3.7% under 4% for over two years — the longest stretch in more than 50 years. Inflation is down to 3.1%.
The economy has added 800,000 manufacturing jobs and private companies have announced more than $300 billion in manufacturing investments here in the U.S. We’re investing more than a trillion dollars in rebuilding our country’s aging infrastructure.
More Americans have health insurance than ever before and a month’s supply of insulin is now capped at $35 for seniors on Medicare. This has all been accomplished under the leadership of President Biden. Yes, he’s old, but he gets stuff done!
Patricia Taylor
Williamsport
Consider the wise words of Pastor Martin Niemoller
To the editor:
Regarding the recent remarks by our former president about NATO and our allies, we, as Americans, should consider the words of Pastor Martin Niemoller:
First they came for the CommunistsAnd I did not speak outBecause I was not a Communist
Then they came for the SocialistsAnd I did not speak outBecause I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionistsAnd I did not speak outBecause I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the JewsAnd I did not speak outBecause I was not a Jew
Then they came for meAnd there was no one leftTo speak out for me
James Harshman
Boonsboro
The cult of Biden is what's destroying America
To the editor:
We all need to calm down a bit and stop the bitterness because we don’t agree politically.
We aren’t in a Trump cult as you put it; we’re just bothered by Biden’s burdens that he forced on us.
Biden has indeed opened our borders and allowed millions of illegal immigrants into our country. They are draining our resources, and becoming a burden to this country and are starting a new crime wave of their own.
Biden’s war on fossil fuels has caused most of the inflation and higher costs. He has driven up gas prices for your vehicle, raised your cost for electricity for your home; groceries are sky high and crime is going rampant in the big cities because of liberal leniency on crime.
If anybody has a cult trending, it’s the Democrats who think that Biden is the best thing that has happened to this country. He wants to destroy everything good and take away beef, gas stoves, wood-burning fireplaces and stoves, and the list can go on and on.
Oh yeah, don’t forget the electric vehicle debacle, and his overreach by pushing green energy that cannot support our infrastructure or provide our total electrical needs.
How about the Russian collusion BS that was invented by Hillary and proven false? If we’re ever going to come together in unity again, your side needs to stop the harmful and vocal rhetoric toward us and this great nation.
You need to rethink what would be best for this great republic and recognize that we are not fascists, bigots or racists, but simply patriotic Americans who are tired of being pushed around and told that we don’t have a voice any longer.
Mike Hébert
Hagerstown
Let the people speak instead of being suppressed
To the editor:
In response to Tom Clemens, I feel very sorry for him not being informed of national news.
I never once distorted the truth in my comments published in the paper. My sources are reliable, and lead to informed opinions.
Again, I say let the people speak instead of being suppressed.
Martha Sullivan
Hagerstown
Sewer line repair was caused by illegal dumping
To the editor:
Authorize T. Byers Contracting to complete the identified sewer repairs at West Franklin Street for the proposed cost of $25,880.
The above item was from February's Greencastle [Pa.] Borough Council Agenda. What it didn't explain nor was it discussed publicly was that that sewer line repair was on private property and was caused by illegal dumping of massive pieces of concrete.
I checked with Franklin County [Pa.] Soil and Conservation and was told that no permit had been issued for the filling in of the property, nor had a plan been submitted.
This has been ongoing with no soil erosion abatement, nor has the borough been checking on this kind of activity even though it was out in the open.
I'm concerned as a taxpayer that we are on the hook for a repair that should have been addressed by the property owner whose actions caused the crushed sewer.
As a former councilman, I'm appalled at the lack of concern for taxpayer funds being spent to repair a major sewer line damaged by a careless landowner, and I'm shocked by council's actions.
Most of the local taxpayers have no idea of where their tax dollars are spent, and it's a shame they don't seem to care.
Perhaps in the future, more of them will attend meetings and develop concern for their tax money.
Frank Webster Jr.
Former councilman and past council president
Greencastle, Pa.