Dear Editor,
Last month I had a fall, and when the pain persisted and the swelling didn’t go down, I was worried that I might have fractured my ankle, so I went to Springfield Hospital to get it checked out. When I got there, the ambulance driver told me I’d have to sit in the waiting room because they were packed. While I was waiting, there was a small child crying in her mother’s lap because her leg was in a lot of pain. Her mother told me that she had been waiting for two hours. An hour later, I finally got moved into a room and got X-rayed. Fortunately, there was no fracture, just an acute sprain, so I went home and have been treating it with ice.
While I was there, a nurse came in with a warm blanket, and told me that it was the last warm blanket. That’s not right – they should have enough medical supplies to provide what everyone needs.
I also heard a staff person say that six ambulances had pulled in – and they were already overcrowded, which is why other patients and I had long waits. One of the ambulance drivers said that they had seen an increase in calls for Springfield since the Bellows Falls Health Center closed. I myself have been to the Springfield emergency room in the past, and I never had as long a wait as I did this time.
Closing the Bellows Falls Health Center has already put extra demand on Springfield Hospital. I’ve been reading in the news that this hospital may be slated for closure. I, along with other people in Bellows Falls, rely on Springfield Hospital for emergency care as well as other hospital care. Instead of closing, we need the Springfield Hospital to stay open with adequate staffing and all the supplies and medications that the staff need to care for us.
Sincerely,
Rhonda Holland
Bellows Falls, Vt.