On Friday, September 6, the community had an opportunity to interact with an executive from the Garnet Health system, Jerry Dunlavey.

It was refreshing to be able to voice our Garnet Catskill health care experiences and questions in a town hall format, the first of hopefully many more. One thing is abundantly clear. There is a huge disconnect between the executives and the consumers vis-a-vis health care services in Sullivan County.

Firstly, let’s review a little history of the hospital. In 2007, Catskill Regional Medical Center, CRMC, and Orange Regional Medical Center, ORMC, announced an affiliation agreement under the umbrella of the Greater Hudson Valley Health System, GHVHS. The goal was to enhance healthcare in the Hudson Valley and in Sullivan County where services were enhanced and equipment was upgraded, helicopter emergency service was available, as well as a new Birthing Center and a quality Cancer Center.

The fly in the ointment was this: “The Greater Hudson Valley Health System entered into a management contract with CRMC and assumed responsibility for day to day management of CRMC. Under this management contract, the Senior Management Team at Orange Regional assisted with all aspects of Catskill Regional’s planning and delivery of healthcare services.”

This is where things started to deteriorate in Harris during successive years. Health care services started diminishing in Sullivan County as they were shunted to Orange County.

Fast forward to 2017/2018 and the present, and the Outpatient Psych was shut down. The SNU was closed during the Covid outbreak. Outpatient Pediatrics, Outpatient OB-GYN, Outpatient Rheumatology were gone in 2022. There were layoffs in each successive year. We owe so much gratitude to all of these hospital employees, medical and supportive staff.

Our favorite pediatricians, our talented cardiologist and rheumatologist, our skilled general surgeon, our favorite endocrinologist are gone. Minimally invasive pain management procedures are now only available in Ellenville Regional Hospital after being available in Harris since 1984. The list goes on.

Presently when you have an emergency, you may find yourself in an ambulance headed toward Orange County. These include children with minor problems, adults with acute stomach pain or bumps to the head, and potential heart attack patients who were always stabilized first in our ER with clot-busting drugs and then sent out. We have a talented staff in our own Emergency Room in Harris. Why are we being shipped off to Orange County, only to wait hours and hours in that ER, which is a tremendous hardship in terms of traveling? People cannot leave their jobs for family members, they don’t have cars or enough money for gas, seniors need to arrange for travel with the Office of the Aging, etc. This is roughly an 80-plus mile round trip.

Here comes the self-fulfilling prophecy: Reduce healthcare services in Sullivan County, lose money, claim financial insolvencies and then line up to ask the state for money or grants.

The piece de resistance is the fact that executives now claim that the Harris Hospital building is not up to par. This is after recent years of improvements, a new ER, money spent and ribbon-cutting ceremonies on various floors.

There is talk of building a new facility. I know I speak for many when I say that the Sullivan County community will not tolerate a shiny new building that will only serve as a “transfer” station for healthcare services going from Sullivan to Orange County. We want our Community Hospital back with employment, services and surgeries for Sullivan County residents right here. We need an expanded Behavioral Unit and a Detox Center. Gov. Hochul just allocated a billion dollars for enhanced mental health services in NYS.

Take care of Sullivan County and let Orange County take care of Orange County and please spare us the commute.

JoAnne Omar is a retired high school biology teacher and a retired medical office administrator. She lives in Liberty, NY.