Maine
Latest Coverage
See all articles
Unanswered questions on MaineHealth’s Lincoln Hospital vote | Letter
What’s wrong with this picture?
Despite grassroots community efforts by the Miles Delivers Action Coalition and personal pleas by Gov. Janet Mills, U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree and all three major gubernatorial candidates, the board of trustees for MaineHealth has voted to close yet another birthing unit.
Where was the investigative reporting by this paper prior to the vote? As a nonprofit, how can the members of the MaineHealth board remain unnamed? How many of the MaineHealth board members live in rural communities? How did they vote on previous closures? What are other rural states doing to combat this growing inequality in care?
As a physician providing specialty care to Downeast Maine, I have seen firsthand the hollowing out of rural healthcare in our state. This gap is a slow-moving tsunami and threatens all of our rural residents.
The answers to these questions should have been provided to the public prior to the MaineHealth board vote.