Opinion

Young: Testimony was powerful medicine

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Written by: Ken Young
I want to commend the people who came to the Board of Supervisor Tuesday, who shared their personal stories and medical and spiritual testimony, in support of the need for a legal syringe-exchange program. THAT was powerful medicine.


Much to the surprise – and welcome – of the Board of Supervisors for getting it right, that the time is now for this program to go forth.


If one child is saved the lifetime cost of becoming infected with HIV and/or HEP C, picking up and getting infected by a dirty needle in a park playground; then, it is all worth it.


The stats for AIDS and HEP C, presented by the Department of Public Health, were scary in their sparseness. As folks who work in the public service sector know, it is safe to hazard a guess that the existing stats for both infections are probably at least 200- to 300-percent higher than the stats collected for citizens who are in the system, i.e., 63 documented AIDS and nearly 200 HEP C.


This is merely the tip of the iceberg and we need prevention programs such as the syringe-exchange if, at least, to practice harm-reduction and have access to the IV drug population that proliferates in the County of Lake as well as those devastating other rural counties in Northern California.


Hats off to the Board of Supervisors and the health services and spiritual community for being both progressive and pro-active. I feel hope.


Ken Young is program coordinator for the Community Care HIV/AIDS Project. He lives in Clearlake Oaks.


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Paris and Frindt: Concerns about hospital status change

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Written by: Janis Paris and Paul Frindt
Regarding Sutter’s conversion to a Critical Access Hospital (CAH), this would leave the community woefully in need of “real” Emergency Services. In a CAH emergency ward, there need only be a nurse “on-site” to perform intake; this nurse may then summon other professional staff who are “on-call,” but unfortunately this does not have to include a physician! Rather, after waiting for this person to be summoned to the hospital you might find that he or she is simply another nurse, and then after diagnosis you might still be shipped or flown out to a treatment center outside the county. This is the level of care one expects from an aid station, not from a hospital emergency department.


The CAH puts specialized nurses into the same category as doctors when describing minimum staff requirements. The following is taken from the Rural Assistance Center's Web site (www.raconline.org) frequently asked questions about CAHs: “The staff … could be a doctor of medicine or osteopathy, a physician assistant, a nurse practitioner, or a clinical nurse specialist, with training or experience in emergency care. In certain very limited circumstances, the coverage could be provided temporarily by a registered nurse.”


Furthermore, you will not know until you arrive at the hospital if there is a doctor in attendance or not: “a CAH, that does not have a physician on site 24 hours per day, seven days per week, [must] provide a notice to all patients upon admission.”


Nowhere in the CAH definition is it ever guaranteed that a physician will be “on-call” at all times and able to come to the hospital if needed: “CAHs are required to provide oversight by a physician, but the oversight provisions are very liberal. This can be especially useful in communities that have had difficulty recruiting physicians.”


This illusion of an Emergency Ward is worse than no emergency ward at all. The waiting time for treatment allowed by these standards is scandalous. It would be better to give training and funding to ambulance staff so they can perform triage themselves and get injured parties to an appropriate place of treatment.


For more information visit www.raconline.org/info_guides/hospitals/cah.php.

 

Janis Paris and Paul Frindt live in Spring Valley.


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Holden: Here's a mascot idea

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Written by: Cheri Holden
I nominate “Ospreys.” And a peaceful community.


Cheri Holden lives in Lakeport.


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Lyle: Near offers thoughtful ideas

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Written by: Jim Lyle
Holly Near (a wonderful writer and poet), in her response to Kelseyville's school mascot problem, is kind, thoughtful and reasonable.


Jim Lyle lives in Yountville.


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  1. Near: Choose the third way regarding mascots
  2. Christopher: Laughter is the best medicine?
  3. Elias: Indian mascot is disrespectful to Native Americans

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