I am amazed that a woman could attain a position such as Esther Rauch’s and still use such a foolish, sexist analogy (BDN, Nov. 2). I took great offense to her remark, especially since I am the wife of an anesthesiologist who spent the better part of what should have been his time off during the first two quarters of this year in fruitless negotiations with hospital administrators to try and head off the situation we have now arrived at.

I am incensed at the implication that these doctors have not used the proper channels. All the roads they took led to dead ends and they’ve now taken the last possible course of action to prevent a tragedy. If they had not gone public with this story, a bad outcome was inevitable.

The board needs to take an honest appraisal of how they (not Norm Ledwin) communicate with the doctors. From my perspective, they have a filter on all the issues affecting the hospital because they have not met with the doctors and the medical staff affected. This seems to be a classic case of management not wanting to hear bad news. No doubt the board is upset and embarrassed at being publicly called on the carpe. There has been a major failure in Eastern Maine Healthcare when the media are the only people willing to hear the truth.

This situation will affect every person in the hospital’s service region in some way and calls for drastic and expedient action. EMMC has already developed a reputation in the anesthesia world as not a good place to practice. That won’t help with recruiting. They developed this reputation as locum tenon doctors came to fill shortages and saw the issues their counterparts were facing. Who in their right mind would take a job where the work environment was not hospitable and the future workload just keeps growing without adequate staff or support from the hospital?

The anesthesiologists have not been able to attract an interview candidate in two years. Add that to the drastic rate of attrition. I don’t think all those doctors could be wrong.

Gayle Perreault

Hampden