Scare tactics about Muhlenberg!

In his “clippings” blog Wednesday, Dan Damon featured a news headline screaming “10 positions cut at Muhlenberg satellite ER.” But the actual Courier News headline, both in print and online, was “10 positions cut at Plainfield satellite facility at former Muhlenberg site.”

That’s quite a difference, isn’t it?

An actual reading of the story reveals that the cuts involved one position in radiology and nine others representing “services that were overlapping,” according to the Solaris spokesman quoted in the Courier. No mention of the ER.

In fact, a simple phone call would have revealed that there have been no staff cuts in the Muhlenberg Emergency Room. So why did Dan say the ER was being cut?

I can think of two reasons. One is that he is trying to scare Plainfielders into thinking that the services of the Muhlenberg Emergency Room are no longer adequate. But people who have used it over the past year have told me personally how competent and effective the ER is in dealing with emergency medical needs such as accidents, chest pains, etc. and how caring and efficient the ER staff was in taking care of them.

The other possible reason for Dan’s misleading headline is that there is an election in less than a month and he and his political allies are trying to blame the mayor and me (and my Assembly colleague Linda Stender) for allowing Solaris to close Muhlenberg. But it was Damon’s allies in the “new Democrats” who sat on the Muhlenberg Board of Trustees and initially approved the closure of our hospital but didn’t tell the Plainfield community. One of those individuals, a member of the previous mayor’s cabinet, sits on the Solaris Board of Directors. And many of them are supporting Republican candidates.

Is there a hidden agenda here? Does anyone want people to think the Muhlenberg ER is inadequately staffed or in danger of closing? Why would anyone want Plainfielders to think that? Unless of course they really want people to stop using it so there will be an excuse for Solaris to be allowed to shut it down.

That’s not in Plainfield’s best interest. And, it’s not in the best interest of our citizens for anyone to spread false information about our hospital or anything else. Reopening Muhlenberg as a real hospital should be on everyone’s agenda. This is an issue that affects all of us, regardless of politics. And bloggers shouldn’t make things up!