Claire L. Hebert-Dow: Doesn't hospital board understand the art of the deal?

To The Dally Sun,

I had planned to direct my letter to Mr. Donovan. But after reading your poignant editorial, I'll still stick with someone who gets it.

As usual, the English language provides a potpourri of options to communicate. Mr. Donovan's reference to their being "some anger" brought me once again right up to where I've been for the past ten days: furious!

A year ago, this community came together to bring a bishop to terms, a powerful kingpin adamantly opposed to anything but the destruction of our beautiful Irish church — we won. A few years back, we were in an uproar (not once, but twice) on the status of the Colonial Theatre — won that one too. Now here we are in the midst of a shutdown unlike anything any of us born after 1918 have ever experienced, and we are at it again.

But this battle is fraught with more innuendo than anything we've been dealt. What really has been going on for years, not just these past couple when the barn was already simmering? And now, the vote to furlough. . . did it require a majority of the board? I'm familiar with many of them; and as experienced entrepreneurs, they should know the art of the deal.

And it begins with communication. Telling us you've taken a 20 percent pay cut while cutting loose 600 professionals who've parted with hundreds of thousands of dollars for their education to provide the backbone for the hospital's existence makes no sense to me.

There was a time when a doctor was superfluous to my wellbeing; now he/she is a necessity. And waiting up to four months to know whether he/she is still around is unconscionable.

Claire L. Hebert-Dow

Laconia