Dear Editor,
The strike by CUPE health care workers is over, something we can all be thankful for. While there is much that has been said about the reasons for the strike, little has been said in print about the consequences the rural communities suffered because of it.
In Tatamagouche we were forced by the Colchester East Hants Healthy Authority to stand by helplessly and watch not only our hospital close, but also our Emergency Department. We pleaded with the CEHHA to at least allow our Emergency to remain open, only to be told on Jan. 15 by Colin Stephenson that our nurses and our management were needed in Truro “for the good of the organization.”
CUPE Local 2525 offered and fully prepared to allow essential services through the picket line to keep our Emergency open. Doctors, nurses and management needed to run the Emergency were in place to keep it open. We were denied this most compassionate effort on the grounds that it would not be good for the organization. What was good for the community was not sufficient reason for our Emergency to remain open.
Rural health care workers may have achieved wage parity and the respect that we deserve, but rural residents have been given a clear message that our welfare is not even on the table when it comes to making decisions about who deserves equal access to medical treatment.
Now is the time to let your representative in government and the Colchester East Hants Health Authority that the closure of our Emergency is not only unacceptable, but illustrates a criminal neglect for the welfare of all of us in rural communities.

Sincerely,
Sarah Ladd,
Middleboro