Can the citizenry of Whidbey Island afford a $50 million first aid station?

I don’t think so!

Whidbey General Hospital is asking the taxpayers of Whidbey Island to give them $50 million for a new hospital wing to better serve patients in the future.

Tom Tomasino, hospital CEO, says he’s been trying for this levy since 2003 as I recall from a recent meeting at the Oak Harbor Senior Center. He thinks this is the proper time since we are coming out of the federal depression and things are beginning to look rosy.

One of the comments was the aging population — duh! — and patients need to be in facility where rooms are for one individual only. I was under the impression that visitation to patients was not for a family gathering or a gabfest, but to cheer the patient up. The hospital board seems to think they have to compete with the major hospitals of Seattle, Everett or Bellingham where the population density is far more than it ever will be on Whidbey Island.

The addition of a new wing is not going to reduce the response time getting to a crisis situation or an emergency, and in many cases the patient will have to be transported to a larger, better staffed, “real” hospital like Harborview, Swedish or Children’s.

Do we have the right to burden our children, our children’s children, and our children’s children’s children to a tax on their future for 26 years? I don’t think so.

Oh, it’s nice of Mr. Sebo to offer to pay $900,000 to equip the proposed expansion if it should win voter approval; it should make a nice deduction on his tax statement and then leave the costs of maintenance, upkeep and so forth for the rest of us poor schmucks.

A.R. Bowers
Coupeville