MRMC

More than 30 dedicated citizens observing the 2nd anniversary of the closing of Muhlenberg Regional Medical centered, rallied in the parking lot corner of Park and Randolph Wednesday night calling for the restoration of Muhlenberg Hospital.

Despite we are in the eighth month of the Christie era it seems that at this time the new powers that be in Trenton have little interest in the Plainfield area communities' health care.

Although during the first 45 minutes of the rally the Mayor and the Council members were conspicuous by their absence, Assemblyman Green, Assemblywoman Stender and Freeholder Kowalski each briefly addressed the attendees.

For over 50 years close I had a intimate relationship with Muhlenberg. I was honored by my peers to be elected more times than any other physician to serve as the Staff President, to act as advocate for patient care and physician rights.

The buildings on Randolph Rd are not just a mass of brick and mortar, but a standing memorial to all those who were born, received care and died there, as well as those who devoted their lives to the care of its patients.

It is a memorial to warm human beings from Isaac the doorman to Jimmy Holmes the orderly who personally treated everyone who entered its portals as a friend. It represents the dedication of caring nurses, doctors, technicians and clerical workers to all who sought care. I can not ignore those members of the Auxiliary Twigs, among them my late wife, who in the 40s and 50s spent hours preparing surgical dressings for sterilization and use. When packaged sterile dressings became available, the Auxiliarians shifted their focus to volunteer duties in the hospital as well as fund raising to help in the care of the less fortunate. Sadly, today much of that loving commitment has fallen victim to legal obstacles.

Muhlenberg was the equal to any and indeed superior to most hospitals in this country, be it medical school or just community hospital. Among other top notch physicians, the Medical Staff included world recognized authorities in Neuro-radiology, Pathology, and Colon Rectal Surgery. The first Colon-Rectal Surgical Residency in the country. was assigned to Dr. Salvatti’s group's practice in Muhlenberg Hospital. Staff quality not the number of admissions was always paramount. Muhlenberg was one of the earliest hospitals to require board certification as a must for staff membership. Other area hospitals including JFK were years later in entertaining such standards.

In the years before Government programs, HMOs and profit oriented insurance programs turned Health Care into a business the hospital was a bastion of warm personal care. Believe it or not the doctors on that staff genuinely cared for their patients as individuals not a case number.

I consider the closure of Muhlenberg to have been a legally criminal action deliberately designed to deprive the population of this area of quality acceptable health care. It is rumored that Solaris plans to sell the property to developers for residential conversion, forever eliminating competition for JFK. this would complete the financial rape of Plainfield's health resources.

We will never be able to replace what once was but it is essential that we the people continue the pressure to reestablish a center for complete acute care within the structure that exists.