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Originally Posted by Sky14
A few weeks ago, I submitted a Letter to the Editor, Daily Sun, but I have given up hope that it will ever be printed, so I'll share it here...
How is it that in The Villages, where everything is so wonderful, the ER service at its hospital, The Villages Regional Hospital, is so poor? Recently, my daughter was quite ill and waited four hours until the stress of sitting in the waiting room became worse than the stress of being sick at home. We left without having been seen. So did a man and woman sitting across from us. They were in their 80s and had been waiting six hours. And this was when the seasonal residents were gone! Since then, in telling our story, I have come across Villagers who said they spent eight hours or longer in the waiting room. This is appalling. If a business operated like that, it would have no customers. But The Villages Hospital has no competitors, so it does not have to care how long the ill and injured have to wait. With large parcels of land being purchased by The Villages, and the subsequent increase in population, the ability to obtain emergency care in a timely manner should be a huge concern for residents. This is about providing more than just amenities and shopping. This is about meeting life’s emergency needs.
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The Villages built the building and leased it to a hospital business. You just can't open hospitals like you do restaurants. They must be permitted.
We are in the middle of a rapidly growing area and we have a population that is fraught with health issues. It would be wonderful if we had a large teaching hospital that specialized in geriatric issues. But like all things that cost money, it has to be funded and supported by greenbacks and has to have a medical community of some standing and merit willing to back it.
I give credit to the Morse family who has tried to fix this deficit by attempting to provide a health organization but it was quickly abandoned by both Moffit and USF.
Health care and insurance are not combatible and the costs, although sometimes warranted are often a football for a not quite as altruistic business as we once thought health care to be.
I am a strong supporter of capitalism. Socialized medicine provides care for all, but not the kind of care that we are used to here in the U.S. It isn't pie in the sky....and talk about waiting..........people diagnosed with breast cancer in Holland and Austria and England often have to wait months for surgery. It is for all, but it isn't as good as we have it here.
Just don't blame the developers. They tried. They failed to fix health care because health care is hard to fix. Scares me. They are good at just about everything.