Slowly Emerging From Withdrawal

I've had to apologize to several folks who are apparently suffering from withdrawal since I withdrew from regular posting just before Christmas. I hope/plan to pick things back up later this week or early next.

November and December were very rough (the whole "Fec-as-a-stalker" business was way-draining in an almost PTSD kind of way), the holidays were a blur (in many ways, as soon as I got home, I simply shut down) and my energy levels are just still WAY too low to blog very much.

I'm still working on getting some letters out (via the PO) too.

Recently, I've been following a medical story at Fox 8, and plan to post on it (as it pertains to totally irresponsible - not to mention inequitable - local journalism) shortly.

One of my 2010 resolutions is to turn more of my home-girl wrath upon the local newspaper that actually deserves it even more than the Greensboro News & Record. And that newspaper is Asheboro's own Courier Tribune.

With that in mind, two stories at the Courier did recently catch my eye.

The first concerned a slander lawsuit filed by an employee (of the Troy Housing Authority) against a Board member of her employer. I actually left a comment on the story . . . which, of course, was not published (as it pretends to be open and transparent, the Courier only accentuates the positive). But I've learned to save comments:

Funny, how when Dr. Mary Johnson filed a lawsuit against Randolph Hospital years ago, it wasn't considered newsworthy - merely an "employment matter".

A year later, when RH sued her for "libel" (ultimately unsuccessfully) it was front page news.

When it finally was all settled - in the doctor's favor - the story (vindicating her) was only reported as a second-page "short-take".

Later on, when the doctor discovered she had been swindled by perjury contempt and fraud on the part of the senior executives of our apparently untouchable "non-profit" hospital - and reported it to the authorities (who have determinedly buried the case instead of referring it to the NCAG's office), the Courier Tribune still cannot be bothered.

This newspaper is a JOKE.

Yeah, I know you won't put up the comment. But that's why I have a blog.

The second story features Bonnie Renfro (wife the of the Courier's former publisher) telling us that 2010 should be "better" than 2009.

And that kind of relates to a phone call I got last week . . . from a Locums company representative who had not looked very closely at my file . . . once again asking me if I would allow them to submit my CV to Randolph Hospital.

They've still having trouble with Pediatric coverage, you see.

I wonder why.

I've taken calls like this before. It's always like having salt rubbed on an open wound. And I declined the offer.

Ms. Renfro & the gurus over at the Economic & Development Corporation (the geniuses who got Asheboro where it is today), have apparently hired yet another round of consultants to do a competitive assessment of Randolph County.

I wonder if these consultants will actually have the guts to serve up one cold hard truth that "the right people" have done their level best to ignore for so long:

Dr. Mary Johnson, on the Internet every day, hammering home the story of how Randolph County's "non-profit" hospital fired her for saving a life, destroyed and absorbed her practice, drove her out of her hometown, sued her for telling the truth to the governments she served, and swindled her at settlement when she dragged them to Court CANNOT be good for physician recruitment or general community PR.

And, in terms of taking care of their employees/their children, it cannot look good to businesses that are considering relocating to the area.

At what point is it just BEYOND STUPID to pay outsider physicians to come in and work in Asheboro (for the lay person's information, an INCREDIBLY EXPENSIVE proposition), when a Board-certified Pediatrician you drove out of town for totally bogus reasons still lives there?

Somebody needs to wake up and own up. It's not 1994 anymore and your reputation precedes you. Good Pediatricians are most definitely NOT "a dime a dozen", and the kid doctors have been giving you a pass for a reason.

In short, clean up the act. Randolph Hospital's BOD should have done it long ago.