Sir: As a former resident and employee with the Regional Municipality of Waterloo and now a new resident of Chatham-Kent, after reading your article, “Farming out urology,” (in the Dec. 4 Chatham Voice), I felt compelled to comment on this matter.
I am – and correct me if I’m wrong – under the assumption that municipal council is trying to attract new residents by becoming an excellent community in which to retire. I believe this to be true. However, that can only happen if the needs of its residents, and in this particular case retirees, are met. To farm out urology in my opinion and not attempt to offer incentives for new doctors/specialists to open practices here is not a direction we should be going.
This seems to me to be counter productive in attracting new residents to our community. It seems to be an example of complacency on the part of the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance.
When the Region of Waterloo was facing a similar dilemma, it opted to offer incentives for new doctors to start practices there. It too could have opted for sending patients to Toronto, Hamilton, and London as examples, but chose a different route to take.
It’s my belief we should be following that example. It’s one thing to reduce costs by cutting back in some ways but to inconvenience and add additional stress to a segment of the community needing these services is not acceptable. It’s instead just a quick fix.
John Supczak
Chatham
