EDITORIAL: The end is near…

ORIGINALLY WRITTEN BY DON RATZLAFF
We?ve heard so many dire warnings over the years about this crisis and that crisis that when we actually have a dire situation before us, it?s hard to take the warning seriously. Well, everything we hear from anybody knowledgeably connected with the health-care providers in Marion County indicates we better believe them: Without radical treatment, the two hospitals now operating in Marion County will not survive the first decade of this century.

Hear it again: We soon will not have a hospital in Marion County unless we take creative and bold action now.

Our interview with Tom Faulkner of Hillsboro Community Medical Center should be mandatory reading for every citizen of this county. No doubt, an interview with Craig Hanson at St. Luke Hospital in Marion would reveal similar sentiments about the precarious future our health-care institutions face.

The boards of the two hospitals are already addressing the issues and exploring some options. But it will take more than a few board members to move the kind of mountains that needed to be relocated in the next few years.

Tom Faulkner believes the city councils of the two towns, plus the county commissioners, should get together to discuss the situation and put their collective influence to work. Sounds like a logical suggestion to us.

Elected officials, get out your datebooks and find an open date. Do it now.

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