Moderator Judy Cummings: “We are inviting you to come to the podium to share so that we, the stakeholders, can listen to what you have to say and hopefully use that information as we make decisions moving forward.”
NASHVILLE, TN – The sanctuary at First Baptist Church, Capitol Hill was full again last month for a community meeting about Nashville General Hospital. The Metro Stakeholders Work Team sponsored the listening session.
Three weeks ago a “Conscious Conversation” at the church featured five panelists who spoke to 300 people about the future of Nashville General and Meharry Medical College. This time community members spoke their minds.
Judy Cummings, a minister and RN, moderated the event. She said the meeting was the place to ask questions and get answers about healthcare in the city. She also said the stakeholders work team has a website where minutes of their meetings will be posted. Those meetings are closed to the public. The Work Team website is: https://home.mmc.edu/stakeholder-mission/. There is another website that can be reached here: www.savenashvillegeneral.com.
“We’re not hiding anything. We want to be transparent,” Cummings said. At first she had trouble getting people to come up to the microphone. Once a few people broke the ice, others came forward.
Hospital workers, doctors, nurses, patients, and community members spoke. Some spoke twice. The gist of what they said: general hospital must be given more, not less financial support from the city. Mayor Barry has proposed General close down as a safety net hospital, a move the audience universally opposed.
Cummings said there will be other community feedback sessions but they have not been scheduled yet. Below in the photo gallery are some excerpts of what was said:
Shawn Morris: “When you lift up people that need the most help it’s a mirror of who you are.”
Dr. Vincent Morelli: We have great enthusiastic residents that work with us, 19 of them If we lose the hospital we are in danger of that changing in some fashion. We benefit greatly from the proximity that we have to the hospital, to medical school, and the interaction therein.”
Roselyn Ward: “Elected officials, get on your job. Pass Insure Tennessee…. Lets take care of our own. Let’s support keeping this hospital open so we can serve those persons that need it the most.”
Mekeila Cook: What is the public health impact if Metro General emergency services close and what does that mean? Who will be impacted and how will outpatient clinics like Mathew Walker be impacted?”
Johnny Davis: “The word on the street is how they are taking our shortcomings and using it against us so we can’t focus on what we need to do.”
Dr. Livette Johnson: “The (HIV) hospital that I worked at is now a condo in Greenwich Village.”
Lori Holum: “One of the pieces that will fall to the wayside for our patients is the follow up care that they desperately need. My gall bladder today may not be a life threatening emergency but when it ruptures it is and do we want our patients in our community to have to get to that point before they can get the care they deserve?”
Evelyn Means: “Every four years we have go through you all talking about closing the hospital. Every time we get a new mayor that’s exactly what happens…..Let’s ask them for those capital dollars so we can come up into the 21st Century with better equipment and be competitive with other hospitals.”
Joan Clayton Davis: “The word on the street is that our city council is not giving adequate support to people who can’t do for themselves.”
Susanne Simpson: “Meharry and Nashville General has been one of the best kept secrets in this town. ……What I mean by that is when the EMTs pick you up at your house they say, ‘Oh, you don’t want to go to Metro General. You need to go to Baptist or Vanderbilt.”
Rev. Ed Sanders: The fact is we have had leadership that has purported to be about the business of being concerned about this community and I have seen little evidence of that…. I’m not going to be a part and I hope none of you will be a part of allowing this to be a divisive issue among us in this community.”
