Editor:
Regarding the missive submitted by Jamie Silva-Steele, yeah, we all love nurses.

Not sure why you and UNM Sandoval Regional Medical Center appear to be against their unionizing; they do a great job.

Where work needs to be done, is with management, meaning yourself and those pushing paper beneath you.

For nearly 10 years, many local residents (whose property taxes built the hospital) have wondered why there is no urgent care?

I mean, beyond the fact that the average ER visit is about $2,000 and an urgent care visit might be $100.

Profit aside, it would really help the community. So would having certain medical services being offered one or two evenings a week, until say 8 p.m. or so: X-Rays, MRIs, a few things like that, such as other hospitals offer.

We’ve also been wondering why it is SRMC can’t get a stationary bike for heart tests similar to a treadmill? People that can’t run due to foot/bone issues can’t conduct these tests.

A cheap bike could be had for a few bucks, and some Boy Scouts could explain how to calibrate it to an EKG if required; it’s not complicated, and yes, other hospitals do it.

You recently had two PCPs quit. No notice was sent to patients.

We had to figure it out ourselves when meds were not being refilled, lab tests were not being reviewed, paperwork requested for those that are disabled or for whom insurance is not being provided.

Health care is not about you getting funding for more monolithic edifices that sit empty 16 hours a day, being heated, cooled and insured; it’s about people, the human beings that paid to build the buildings and pay all of your salaries.

Yes, COVID has been rough, but some of these issues have existed for nearly a decade.

We should expect, and deserve, far better.

Bruce Hutchinson
Rio Rancho