People make mistakes and I am no exception. Recently at the Greenfield Town Council, I made an inartful statement that was not understood as intended. In comments about the proposed closing of Baystate Franklin Medical Center’s mental health unit, I said that what was most important to me was patient care and outcomes. As an aside, I added “I don’t even care about nurses.” It sounded awful. I meant it in the context of the allegations that the Council President being conflicted in bringing the resolution as an employee of the Massachusetts Nurses Association, but I was not clear. It was not in any way intended to devalue the importance of nurses and the nursing profession for which I hold the highest regard.
That said, if the result of consolidating mental health care in Holyoke means that patients are going to get better care (which I have not been shown it will do), I would support that. I would be in favor of better care for mental health patients, even if it meant the inconvenience or loss of jobs for some nurses. For myself the care of our must vulnerable people comes before the care of the caretakers themselves. Some may disagree with that position and I respect their opinions.
Finally, I do not believe it is the role of the council to tell private employers how to handle their labor relations matters. We have a hard enough time with our own. The council took no action when other private companies and nonprofits have laid-off scores and even hundreds of employees. My point was this was different because this is about patients. In the end, I value nurses as much as any other laborer in Greenfield and I am truly sorry that I did not choose my words better.
Isaac Mass
Greenfield City Councilor At-Large