Livingston Manor

To the editor:

Questions have arisen which as far as I know have not been answered by anyone in the capacity to answer them. A spokesman for Garnet Catskill Regional Medical Center in Harris, NY, made a statement a few weeks ago that the facility would indeed be there for our region.

This spokesman never verified in what capacity the Medical Center would be serving Sullivan County, and the County Legislators never approached the issue of services that would be available. The cardiac unit has been closed for several months making all cardiac patients travel to Middletown for needed services. Ambulances have been told that all cardiac patients must be taken to Orange Regional. There is no longer a pediatric unit in the Harris facility, therefore pediatric patients are also diverted to Orange Regional. Very little testing is still done in the Harris Facility.

Crystal Run Healthcare was sold in April and the Rock Hill Facility building was sold with them now working with a skeleton crew and slowly leaving there and relocating to their Middletown and Goshen Facilities.

Small pharmacies in the county were bought out by Walgreen’s and closed down, leaving several communities without those services.

The Community General Hospital was originally built to be a central location in the county for health care and small hospitals were closed in the county at that time. Why didn’t the county legislators take the time to find out the foreseeable future of The Catskill Regional Medical Center and services to be offered?