Readers write: Feb. 24
Non-emergencies overwhelm hospital
As a Clayton County resident for the past 50 years, I found the article about Southern Regional Medical Center (SRMC) interesting (“Hospital ailing despite bailout,” News, Feb. 22). I can see why SRMC has such a financial problem. The demographics in Clayton means a large number of people in this county do not have insurance and go to the ER for things that could be handled at a doctor’s office or an urgent care facility. The services rendered to these individuals are free, and SRMC cannot turn them away, which equates to no money coming in for these services.
My elderly mother was in a nursing home that was not able to treat some emergencies, so she had to be transported to SRMC several times. It was gut-wrenching knowing that she would have to wait her turn in line (sometimes several hours) because of all the non-emergencies that were going to the ER for minor ailments such as colds. Even though I was told the ER prioritizes the degree of urgency, I found this to be untrue. It seemed to be “first come, first served.”
If SRMC is forced to close its doors, watch out, Henry and Fayette counties. You’ll be next for treating these individuals.
NORBERT RAITH, JONESBORO
City spends money to beg for money
The AJC article, “Cost to run streetcar system likely to rise 50%” (News, Feb. 19), exemplifies the spendthrift attitude journalists and taxpayers have come to accept from America’s political leadership. While many of us expected the price tag for the streetcar would go up, as the article’s title suggests, the real problem, buried in the article, should raise the specter of John Galt. Cost overruns for operating or capital expense are one thing, but how can we sit by and accept that “the city will spend more than $1 million a year on the new office dedicated to amassing federal transit money”? In the end, we are all expected to accept that $1 million of a $1.6 million overrun, which will never go down, is to be spent hiring people to look for ways to beg the federal government to give more of my tax dollars to Atlanta.
JEFF MARLIN, SNELLVILLE
ISIS isn’t a ‘state,’ it’s a bunch of thugs
Why do we, for some inexplicable reason, continue to define the terrorist group in Iraq and Syria as a recognized “state”? For some unknown, totally inexplicable reason, ISIS is accepted in all conversations as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. They are not a “state” by any acceptable international definition. They are basically immoral thugs whose ISIS moniker should be changed to ISIM and defined for what they represent: an Intrinsically Sadistic Illegal Movement.
WADE J. WILLIAMS, PEACHTREE CITY
