Sir: I am a dialysis patient and I read with concerned interest your article in the Chatham Voice, “The price of a hospital visit,” Aug. 30, for being both complete and accurate. What Lori Marshall (CKHA president and CEO) told you in the interview is a long ways from complete and therefore inaccurate.
I am enclosing all the related correspondence to you, and you be the judge.
From the info that I found out through asking questions of the nursing staff – keep in mind that these staff nurses make a lot more money than dialysis patients and oncology patients, who for the most part are limited to disability and or old age pension cheques once a month – that they pay $30 per month for parking which is automatically deducted from their pay, regardless how many times per month that they use it. There is a lot of part-time staff at the hospital.
The following statement is mere suggestion:
If you are a full time registered nurse working a four-day workweek and having a week off every month, it would cost you $30 per month for parking or $2.50 per day. Funny, that is the same price that they are expecting dialysis and oncology to pay provided that they have this 30-day hospital pass.
There is a question that has been running through my mind concerning this parking fiasco. The hospital says that donations from John Q Public have dried up. So be it. My question is, there are monies left to dialysis through last will and testaments that go into a slush fund if these funds are not carefully earmarked in a will. This fund from what I understand is controlled by hospital administration, i.e. Lori Marshall, CEO. Past experience has taught that, even getting anything for the dialysis unit is tough. What I want to submit to you is: isn’t the reserved parking that is to be used by dialysis patients only a part of the dialysis unit?
Why can’t the last will and testament monies that are donated to dialysis be used for the purpose of parking?
Thanks for allowing me to vent a little. I hope some of what I have said is of some use.
I would also like to inform you that as of February of next year, I will have been on dialysis for 15 years.
John Cracknell
Wallaceburg
