GLASGOW —
T.J. Samson Community Hospital officials hope to have successful meetings with committees that were set up at a recent public forum on healthcare, despite the hospital’s disagreement with forum organizers and the negative things said at the forum.
Three days after two local physicians conducted a forum that cast aspersions on the way T.J. Samson and its healthcare system is being run, hospital CEO Bill Kindred decided to speak out in defense of his hospital and staff.
“We’re here for the right reasons and we do what we do for the right reasons,” Kindred said.
Only the two organizing physicians, cardiologist Dr. Melissa Walton-Shirley and orthopedic surgeon Dr. Barret Lessenberry, comprised a panel that answered questions at the forum. The fact that two out of approximately 70 local physicians were on the panel says a lot about the validity of claims against T.J. Samson, Kindred said.
“If indeed all those [accusations] were true, you would have seen a lot more people on that stage,” Kindred said.
Before the forum, 59 T.J. doctors signed a letter in support of the hospital that was published in the Glasgow Daily Times. Those doctors were not pressured to sign the letter, Kindred said, and some chose not to sign it.
The number 59 up against two dissenting physicians is telling, Kindred said. While Walton-Shirley and Lessenberry are “clinically, very good physicians,” Kindred said they are trying to tear down the hospital in order to serve their own self-interests.
For the full story, read Friday's print or e-Edition of the Glasgow Daily Times.
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