The news that a couple of hospitals in the city will be closing hadn’t really surprised me. What did surprise me was the fact that these hospitals had an excellent reputation, and one had been in existence for 120 years. Another sign of the times? We all know that healthcare is big business. If major corporations are laying off people and/or shutting their doors, it makes sense that hospitals are feeling the crunch as well. Family and friends who work in healthcare have been telling me for years how overworked and understaffed they are. One who was going for her RN told me she stopped going to school because the doctors were so short and they had to give some of their work to the RNs and NPs. Her fear of making a critical mistake and getting sued eventually overruled her desire to help people.

Our healthcare system has been crumbling and in disrepair for many years now. When people lose access to emergency care, and their nearest hospital is 20 or 30 minutes away, you would think the crisis would be immediately addressed. The fact is that these hospital closings aren’t being addressed in the MSM much at all, and our elected officials seem to be putting the issue of healthcare off until the election is over. In the meantime more people will die because they don’t have insurance, or they got to the nearest hospital too late.

A horrible incident recently happened at a hospital in Egypt. There was a power outage, and the back-up generators didn’t work. Six people died because of it, and the hospital tried to cover it up. With the hospitals in the US experiencing financial difficulties, this could easily happen here.

(“Egypt:Doctors shoot video of blackout emergency” via Global Voices)