Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
Likely to be hard to staff a hospital
If you build it, he will come … that was the line in the movie “Field of Dreams.”
It doesn’t necessarily work that way when the topic is building a new hospital.
We see more and more news stories about smaller towns trying creative ideas to attract people. But when reporters return to see the success of the ideas, they find only minor impacts.
Reality is that small towns are losing populations, not experiencing a population boom.
And on the evening news, we see stories about how hard it is for small towns to attract and retain medical professionals.
We hear about “traveling nurses” as a trend across America. Stories state the huge need for nurses in America. There is even educational assistance for the costs of training to become a nurse to fill the current vacancies.
And not only “traveling nurses,” but traveling emergency room doctors or, as they are called, “Locums.” We have not had a resident ER doctor in numerous years and I do not anticipate this changing.
We know New Mexico’s population tends to be older, and a large part of that population is on Medicare and Medicaid.
Medicare and Medicaid have caps on what procedures pay, and our state tends to be on the low side.
Also, services are taxed in New Mexico. Therefore, medical services are taxed, which also differs from many other states.
So, New Mexico is at a disadvantage in attracting medical professionals.
If we build that $25 million hospital Quay County commissioners are asking for, we may not have any medical professionals who will come to staff it.
An urgent care center is all we need, and that would come at a much lower cost.
We have always been a conservative and realistic county. We should stay that way.
Richard Randals
Quay County