While Seven Days very briefly touched on the reduction of frontline staff at University of Vermont Health in [“UVM Health Cuts 142 Positions Amid Ongoing Restructuring,” June 9, online], so much remains unsaid about the way that quality is eroding from heath care in our state. A reduction in frontline staff, like nurses in our primary care practices or LNAs in our nursing homes, will directly affect the already strained care that remaining staff will be able to provide. The effects of Vermonters receiving less attentive care from their primary care providers will spill over into more expensive care in our emergency rooms; our increasingly large population of vulnerable, elderly Vermonters without proper care in nursing home or rehab facilities will end up needing more expensive care in limited hospital beds.
Additionally, the increased difficulty in accessing quality health care of their own due to insurance coverage changes, including the recent decision to abruptly discontinue coverage for GLP-1s, places further strain on UVM Health employees. Will money saved now by reducing access to care or medication that is making a significant number of employees healthier offset the cost of future care that these employees will need for exacerbated conditions they can no longer afford to treat?
The shortsighted strategy being applied by UVM Health is penny-wise, pound-foolish. The network should consult less with expensive consultant firms and more with techs, nurses, LNAs, physician assistants, midwives and numerous other staff with firsthand experience of the challenges facing heath care in our state.
Maya Schnell
Bristol