I’ve read with interest this year’s eye-catching news about more health care access in health center vans and Baystate buses. New doctors training here in town also makes for great news of improved access to care. We all need high quality health care at a low cost that we and our families can afford. It is a crying shame the calling of medicine has become such a gross business affair, and I mean affair in all its forms.
I like many here have young children and may also be without health insurance after Jan. 1. Fancy toys are nice, but experience and my old teachers taught me that we only need knowledge and desire to give quality care to each of us. It is a shame how much it costs to train a doctor today (and it is a shame how much wealth our doctors take for granted today too).
It is a shame how much money we spend on technology instead of people. We can — and doctors do — provide high quality health care at less than half the price that places charge when we simply take care of the person in front of us. No jingles, no jangles, no bragging about expensive toys and no begging for charity while chasing the public eye.
And all of our hospitals and medical practices can do even more to help by giving more of themselves. With the holiday season upon us and so much good in this world of ours let us try even harder to carry this season of generous forgiveness (of medical debts, too) even farther into the new year.
Stefan Topolski, M.D.
Shelburne Falls