| HCA
Hearing Not a Civil Procedure |
|
To the editor:
|
| My wife and I attended the Virginia Regional Health Systems
Agency hearing at Stonebridge High School in Ashburn recently.
I was scheduled to be one of the "three minute" speakers commenting
on the application of HCA to build a new 180 bed Broadlands
Regional Medical Center Hospital. I will not go into all the
details surrounding the HCA proposal as they have been written
about in your newspaper many times. |
| We got to the high school at 6:30 p.m. for the hearing that
was slated to begin at 7:30 but started after that time. We
sat in the audience until 12:31 a.m., six hours, listening
to some of the most vitriolic comments I ever heard. Several
speakers would not even stop their allotted speaking time
in spite of several requests from the panel to do so, one
or two taking almost twice their time. |
| You would think HCA was applying to build a prison or Disneyland
complex listening to the opposition. I never heard so many
people make the word "competition" a dirty word. |
| Not once did the opposition applaud good people with good
intentions making sensible statements. On the other hand,
the HCA supporters applauded many of the opposition's speakers,
except those who came there not only with a chip on their
shoulder, but to make many unsupported and rumored accusations.
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| What's really sad about all of this is that there is not
and never will be anyone on the HCA side trying to "shut down"
the Loudoun Healthcare system in any way, shape or form. That
includes us. We have no bias in this fight, as we never even
heard of HCA until just before this hearing, and think the
world of the Lansdowne Hospital and its medical and professional
staff. |
| I didn't get to make my remarks because by 12:31 a.m. my
name still had not been called, the crowd had dwindled down
to almost nothing; the panel was obviously exhausted, as were
the remaining attendees. No one at that time was really "listening"
to anyone anyway. |
| Had I been given the opportunity to speak, this is what
I was going to say, slightly modified while I sat there listening
to the various speakers: |
| After 22 years in the U.S. Marine Corps with service in
the Korean and Vietnam wars, I worked another 18 years for
the U. S. Postal Service. For six of those years I was the
postmaster of the entire Northern Virginia area, dealing with
its unique and rapid growth patterns. |
| With this background, I wholeheartedly support not only
HCA's proposal to build a new hospital in Broadlands, but
also the application of Loudoun Healthcare for the additional
hospital beds they seek in Lansdowne and Leesburg, as well
as the strong "challenge" made by County Supervisor Burton
to rebuild the hospital in Leesburg. |
| This only supports my contention that we are going to need
all the hospitals we can build in Loudoun County because of
the very large projected population growth in the next 10
or more years (and the situation in the world today). |
| The United States and most of the World came to a halt on
Sept. 11, 2001 after the widespread destruction and distress
in New York City, the catastrophe at the Pentagon, and the
deadly airplane crash in Pennsylvania. |
| We can never assume that similar or worse terrorist attacks
or natural disasters will not happen in Loudoun County or
our surrounding area. |
| The approval of HCA's application for the Broadlands hospital
will provide the additional emergency resources, medical personnel
and related disaster staff needed even now, but will also
provide the propositioned disaster response capability required
for just such dangers. |
| It is the right decision, at the right time, for the right
reasons. |
| Gerald F. Merna |
| Potomac Falls |
