Twilight Zone Time -

[kyburg]

Submitted for your perusal. I was just dinking around with Google news this afternoon, searched on 'Hemet' - and these two stories jumped out at me:

The obstetrics unit at Hemet Valley Medical Center will close, at least temporarily on Oct. 14 because the two obstetricians who had provided legally-required, constant on-call coverage have notified the hospital they will no longer do so as of Oct. 16, officials announced.

"We don't know how long this suspension will be," said Jerri Randrup, vice president of communications and marketing for Valley Health System, the public hospital district that operates the hospital.

She urged pregnant women to talk to their physicians and make arrangements to give birth in other hospitals.

I know this facility well. Well, I should. I was born there. Mom worked there for over 35 years.

It's also a district hospital - or was, I really can't say anymore. It's at least 30 miles away from any other facilities. Yes, really.

It's also very close to a number of Indian reservations - and I can recall the whole 'illegals having babies on our tax dollars' - since I can remember. This is not four years, eight years - shit, even twenty years. I can go back nearly forty years on this issue - and you know what?

Never, not EVER - have I heard of this hospital shutting down or not being able to provide services.

Illegals. Phaugh. We can't even - or are unwilling - to provide the basic FOR OURSELVES. If someone can give me a good case showing that someone got care that wasn't available to anyone walking around, I'd like to know. Because when I was born - WE COULD.

Someone please tell me. WHAT HAPPENED. I just want to know.

And the corker?

Hemet fire stations have been designated as "safe havens" for desperate mothers to drop off their unwanted babies, no questions asked.

The City Council has approved a resolution making all five Hemet fire stations available to receive infants who otherwise might be abandoned in a dangerous location, such as a Dumpster or a back alley, where they could get hurt or killed.

"Women who are in this situation are already down a desperate road," said Hemet fire Capt. Laura Fielding, who championed the resolution's adoption in Hemet. "This just gives them the option of doing the right thing for the child."

I guess if you could find someplace safe to have a kid -

Let me also remind folks of one pertinent fact about having a baby in California. More babies are born on Medi-Cal than any other method of payment, including not having any coverage at all - and having a baby is the number one reason ANYONE uses a hospital. Not being able to handle this service? It would be like McDonalds being unable to serve hamburgers - I kid you not.

We have done a lot to make it possible for people to have babies - safely, and affordably. At least - that was the case in 1996, when I worked in the business.

Somebody tell us all what happened. We need to know. We need to make sure it stops, reverses and gets fixed.

Because this - this SUCKS.

Comments

[eyelid.livejournal.com]

Somebody tell us all what happened.

It is obvious what happened. There were only two doctors providing round the clock on-call care. They also had regular practices of their own. They finally just couldn't do it anymore.

[bronxelf-ag001.livejournal.com]

This. And to be honest, I don't blame them. I'd be dead tired of killing myself with no support, no help, no LIFE (because when do you have time to have one?) and the constant fear of a massive lawsuit because you're working while exhausted.

[eyelid.livejournal.com]

word. I really feel for those two doctors. It's obvious they were killing themselves and completely being taken for granted. They kept calling for more support and better facilities, but being ignored.

[audacian.livejournal.com]

Oh that's ridiculous. Must be nice to be able to withhold services to women and children in need to make a political statement.

[eyelid.livejournal.com]

WTF? They're not making a "political statement." These two women have been on call every single day for who knows how long. They want lives and families too. I don't see you doing thing one out there. You're what, a law student?

They've done far more for women's health than you ever have or ever will, and all you can do is bitch when they finally can't take it anymore. That's gratitude for you.

[audacian.livejournal.com]

Are you spying on me? That's kind of creepy, you know.

[eyelid.livejournal.com]

If by "spying" you mean did I check your journal's public userinfo, then yeah, I'm a HUGE SPY. OMG, how on earth did I learn these tricksy methods of gathering information.

Nice job totally avoiding the substance of my comment, btw. But of course you just didn't have anything you could say in response.

[audacian.livejournal.com]

I was referring to "I don't see you doing thing one out there." How can you possibly know what I do? You might want to re-think your tricksy methods of gathering information. Did you really have to edit your comment to include a direct link? I think that's quite an insult for people reading because most people do indeed know how to access my public information.


Your "substance" (which I suppose you define as the words between the poor assumptions and insults) asserted that the OBs in question are overworked and would like lives. I completely agree with that. There is my response. I apologize if it is not as engaging as you had hoped.

[eyelid.livejournal.com]

*rolls eyes* oh, please. yes, I'm sure everyone is very offended by my edit.

and I'm sure you're doing tons for women's health in your role as a law student. You totally have standing to tell off those shirking obs.

Your "substance" (which I suppose you define as the words between the poor assumptions and insults) asserted that the OBs in question are overworked and would like lives. I completely agree with that.

it's interesting how you can both agree with that AND attack the obs in question by saying that they are denying women medical care to make a political statement. Very flexible of you.

[audacian.livejournal.com]

Do you get paid for being so defensive? It seems to be your favorite hobby 'round the internets. Or maybe you're just trying to make up for your own glaring ignorance.

I think I'll stop here in respect to kyburg, you can continue to humor yourself however you please.

[eyelid.livejournal.com]

Do you get paid for being so defensive? It seems to be your favorite hobby 'round the internets.

*amused* what, are you SPYING on me? how would you know my favorite internets hobby?

You're the one being defensive here. Me, I was on the offense, because you made a ridiculous, privileged, and nasty attack on some very good women doing very good things.

oh, I see you EDITED YOUR COMMENT to include links to other posts you've been detectoring me on! Could you possibly find another way in which to be hypocritical?

[audacian.livejournal.com]

I'll reply and thus be hypocritical once more so you can call me out on it, okay?

Where did I say I was criticizing the OBs decision?

[eyelid.livejournal.com]

oh, did you come back? What about your respect for Kyburg?

Where did I say I was criticizing the OBs decision?

Article provided by Kyburg:

The obstetrics unit at Hemet Valley Medical Center will close, at least temporarily on Oct. 14 because the two obstetricians who had provided legally-required, constant on-call coverage have notified the hospital they will no longer do so as of Oct. 16, officials announced.

your comment: Must be nice to be able to withhold services to women and children in need to make a political statement.

also, when I called you out on having attacked the women, instead of addressing the issue or saying you meant something else, you simply called me a spy etc.

[audacian.livejournal.com]

I don't think your assumption is unfair, and I would've clarified had you showed any intent you were interested in me doing so. I don't know, I tend to shy away from people who accuse and insult me right off the bat. Maybe I'm weird like that.

There were a number of decisions that led to withholding of services - kyburg mentioned it being near a reservation and how for 40-odd years people had been arguing that they were taking tax dollars and services and thus leaving everyone else without services, where in Kyburg's experience and knowledge this simply wasn't the case.

I don't blame the OBs for saying enough is enough, because clearly, people can only provide so much without rest and without support.

This is clearly a systematic failure which, by fair implication, may have something to do with providing resources to underserved people on reservations and/or"illegals". So, in fact, I'm criticizing the implied political statement of the hospital, the municipality, those who provide funding, the state of California, etc to let it even get to this point. California has passed some pretty harsh laws and propsitions in relation to its undocumented immigration population, so it's not a stretch of the imagination that it's trickled down to hospitals like this. It's more likely that the hospital has their hands tied, and it's unclear who exactly is accountable. But, like kyburg said, something is clearly wrong. Someone is accountable for this hospital's inability to provide services, and it's fucked up. The end.

[eyelid.livejournal.com]

I don't think your assumption is unfair, and I would've clarified had you showed any intent you were interested in me doing so. I don't know, I tend to shy away from people who accuse and insult me right off the bat.

I'm kind of confused as to why you'd be willing to clarify now, then.

But whatever... if you weren't referring to the ob/gyns with your statement, then I apologize for attacking you on that basis. I am very touchy about people bagging on those who are fighting in the trenches... it's really easy for armchair analysts to criticize and say they aren't doing enough.

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

*waves* Wow, you guys got busy.

There's a couple of things I want to bring your attention to.

One, when I worked at that hospital (and I did, on two different occasions, two different summers), two OBs would have been considered a small practice.

Only two left? There's hardly anything political (unless you consider the level of malpractice litigation in OB practices political) about it.

When I was born, the town had less than 20,000 residents. We didn't get a McDonald's in town until I was in High School.

Checking the wikipedia entry, the numbers look really low - I blame that on the fact everything is counted within the city limits - which is a very VERY small part of the geography. I never lived within the city limits - ever - for example. Most people don't.

They're saying the population has doubled - at least - since then. And there's only two OBs - and they're tired, worried about liability and find the costs unacceptable.

Someone tell me how that happened. We provided really good care with a smaller tax base, to a whole lot more people with more providers.

Tell me what happened to THAT. I want to know.

[moropus.livejournal.com]

Its sad that a hospital would have to try to get by with only 2 OBs. Even worse, OBs' malpractice insurance is so high that a lot of them are getting out of the baby business and going into a different field of medicine. Besides all that, ever notice how many women go into labor at night after the doc has put in a full day at his office and take 2-3 days to deliver?

[audacian.livejournal.com]

Yeah really. This is a bad scene all around.