Gary Arthur requests NHD update from City officials

Yesterday, Gary Arthur, President Pro Tem of Norwood Health Commission, sent the following email, a public document, to Mayor Williams, Council President Jane Grote, and Councilpersons Keith Moore, Steve Thornbury, Michael Gabbard, and Victor Schneider. Mr. Arthur copied the email to six other individuals, including one of us.


From: Gary Arthur
Date: Thu, 16 Oct 2008 3:55 pm

I understand that you are continuing with your evaluation of the Health Department. It is regrettable that you have still chosen to keep the Health Commission in the dark regarding your progress. It has been over two weeks since you held the committee as a whole meeting, and to date, the Health Commission has not received any information regarding your progress or your intentions. This is unacceptable and unprofessional, since the outcome of your decisions will greatly impact the future of the Health Department.

The Health Department provides a very real and necessary service to the citizens of Norwood at a very reasonable cost. To out source any of the services would increase the cost to our residents and greatly delay any response time to our elderly and shut-ins that are unable to travel to the outpatient facilities. The representatives from the Hamilton County Heath department said they would have to increase their staff to accommodate our needs, which would increase their budget, and ultimately this increase would be charged back to the patients. Outsourcing the services to another facilitator would result in a delay of the response time to those in need of timely attention, as was also outlined by the Hamilton County Health department representatives.

Please provide us a progress update report at the earliest convenience.

Respectfully,

Gary Arthur, President Pro Tem
Norwood Health Commission.