With the last town meeting of the year behind us, you might think we would stop nagging you about going out and participating in civic affairs, making your voice heard, blah, blah, blah.
Not so fast.
One of the most important meetings of the year will take place at The 1812 Farm in Bristol Mills on Wednesday, July 12, and it concerns the future of our county’s only hospital.
A proposal under consideration by the LincolnHealth Board of Trustees and the boards of organizations throughout the MaineHealth system would further unify the system and cede authority in certain areas to MaineHealth without a permanent guarantee of local representation on the MaineHealth board.
Yikes! Sounds scary, right? We like local control! We don’t want a bunch of executives in a Portland boardroom to make decisions about our hospital!
But there are trade-offs with the proposal. LincolnHealth leaders say it could improve their ability to recruit doctors and nurses and contribute to long-term financial stability for LincolnHealth and other rural MaineHealth members by allowing funds to move throughout the system.
To their credit, LincolnHealth leaders have been frank about the pros and cons of the proposal, expressing their own misgivings while acknowledging that the realities of modern health care might make unification the best – or only – path.
LincolnHealth plays an enormously important role in this community. Just try to imagine Lincoln County without it. It’s our number one employer. It provides crucial services, particularly in a county with a much higher average age than most.
Wednesday is your opportunity to hear firsthand about the unification proposal, ask questions, and give the folks at LincolnHealth an earful if you don’t like it (or if you do).
To read more about the unification proposal, go to lcnme.com/currentnews/lincolnhealth-unification.
