Hemorrhaging Health Care

Is there a crisis in health care, especially with hospitals in the Eugene-Springfield area? We are inclined to think so based on recent needs for emergency services at PeaceHealth/RiverBend.

Waiting for seven hours to see a doctor for a condition deemed serious by a specialist, in an at-capacity waiting room throughout a long night, defies the concept of emergency when no other options were available to us, even with full insurance coverage.

Has our area outgrown its capacity to serve its citizens’ health needs? Might a problem be that a higher number than average of new incoming residents are retirees, having more age-related medical requirements, thus growing the care-needing population? Or is it that hospitals and clinics are constrained under profit quotas that cause staffing shortages of qualified professionals?

Eugene-Springfield’s population has and will continue to grow. But not factored into the push to increase housing to accommodate that growth is a healthcare infrastructure. And by all accounts, it’s already hemorrhaging!

I am hoping that mayors, city managers and councilors take careful note of an unsafe situation, and begin prioritizing future steps that truly ensure our wellbeing and the livability of our cities, over and above bicycles and murals. 

Richard and Christine Sundt