This letter is in response to the recent articles about the conflict between Dr. Charles T. McHugh and the Calais Hospital.

I am a former employee of Calais Regional Hospital, and during the time I was employed there, I found the institution to be filled with politics, intrigue, and an unmitigated greed displayed by management.

I am a certified laboratory technologist and while I was employed at the hospital I was coerced into accepting what management called “an innovative work schedule.” This included working strictly a weekend shift and waiving all shift-differential and any overtime pay rights. I accepted this particular arrangement because my supervisor (and others under his control) assured me I was getting quite a deal with this schedule (they strongly touted the benefits of having several weekdays off). But after a few months of this grueling routine (remaining in-house and taking call for three days straight), I found out that I was the one who was getting the short end of the deal.

I spoke to my supervisor about my lack of overtime pay, and I showed him the daily log of how I was working many more hours than I was being paid for. My supervisor told me to speak with a person higher on the management ladder about the matter, but this management official simply said, “No, we cannot afford to pay you either the shift differential or your overtime.”

My next course of action was to file a grievance with the union, but hospital politics had it that management had the last word, and all that happened to me was that I had opened a door to be made miserable because I had dared to stand up to the high and mighty Ray Davis, king of the Calais Hospital, and all of the loyal vassals under his thumb. Later, my supervisor informed me that I was not permitted to work alone because he (and obviously others) had decided that I as a professional “were incompetent.” I finally got a belly full of their underhanded politics, and I quit.

And just one sentence with respect to Dr. McHugh: In my opinion, a whistle blower would not last long on the medical staff at Calais Regional Hospital.

It’s high time this medical conspiracy be ended. Anthony I. Orenstein Princeton