December 8, 2012Dear Sir,Please allow me space to address a comment made by a Progressive Labour Party Minister during a news broadcast recently proposing changes that will be made if the PLP is re-elected. During his speech he said that the One Bermuda Alliance would reintroduce the “Indigent Clinic” if elected. The Minister then said that they would not go back to, and I quote, “substandard medical care”. I take offence to this statement as should all of the medical staff, nurses, doctors, aides and pink lady volunteers as well as all the Red Cross volunteer drivers who worked tirelessly in the Medical Clinic, for years, with caring and compassion looking after those who could not afford private care. Sir, you have insulted the integrity and capability of doctors Morley Nash (now deceased) Bert McPhee and many of the other fine (private) medical practitioners who filled in when needed, all of whom I had the greatest pleasure of working with both in the community and at Lefroy House. Sir, you owe them an apology.I have worked in the medical profession for over 40 years, 35 of them serving the Bermuda Government and caring for those who could not care for themselves, the great majority being our senior population, I never thought that I would hear a Minister belittling the personnel of a much needed clinic that should never have been closed down in the first place. On another note, your PLP platform as advertised in Friday’s edition of The Royal Gazette states that you will introduce home healthcare as a standardised hospital benefit. Could you be so gracious as to explain this point in more detail. Currently Health and wound care is already provided for from KEMH for patients being discharged from the Hospital along with all the medical and wound care products needed.The Health Department also provides extensive home healthcare and health education by way of a dedicated, hard working team of health visitors, district nurses, school nurses, home health aides, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, dentists, hearing and speech specialists. Have I missed out anybody? I hope not. The care is already in place. Can you please tell me how or why you would introduce another entity? Hospital staff are not trained in community nursing or public health, please leave that to the experts.MIRIAM CALLABRASState Registered NurseState Certified Midwife