VOICE OF THE PEOPLE

Laptop medicine I cannot imagine any relationship (outside family) that is more important than the doctor-patient relationship. Certainly, it was warmer for my generation, before many doctor-patient relationships became so impersonal, even robotic. Believe it or not, there was a time when doctors actually came to your home with their little black bags, even visiting those of us not born with silver spoons in our mouths or who were once said, "to be from the other side of the tracks." A time when doctors, teachers, police, surprisingly even lawyers were held in high regard and actually respected, regretfully a long bygone era.

Substantial responsibility is actually not the doctors'. Government incompetence, constant overreach, inane rules, and greed of both the insurance and pharmaceutical industries bear significant responsibility. Government's incompetence demand doctors waste untold hours on needless paperwork providing volumes of information feeding their bureaucratic machines, filling countless government black holes with considerable useless data.

Medical insurance -once designed to cover major health problems -is now expected to cover every sniffle or stubbed toe. Americans feel no responsibility for their personal heath, since insurance must be provided by their employer or government. Rapidly understanding how unrealistically demanding Americans can be, pharmaceutical companies push drugs like TV and billboard lawyers push their poison for enormous profits. "Managed Care" companies now own the souls of many fine, well-respected doctors. Many are now robots sitting behind laptops entering data, no longer providing the important personal relationship, feedback, comfort or care that previous generations valued. Slick marketing campaigns grow their business, not their providers' trusted reputations; bedside manner be damned. Managed Care facilities expand income streams with questionable tests, referrals, video appointments and surrogates that fill tightly scheduled daily appointment slots to expand income streams. Please understand, these surrogates are competent, capable, dedicated professionals, but when you see a different person on every visit, it is impossible to establish a relationship or receive true quality care. Personally, I am an unrepentant capitalist but some things should never be reduced to dollars and cents.

Recent history has personally highlighted these facts. Realities primarily caused by government's unending incompetence, create numerous costly negatives for any doctor's personal and economic wellbeing. Once-trusted doctors are forced into mediocrity by government dictates. "Not me," you say, "my doctors are great." Don't let those be your famous last words. They came close to being mine. At least, if I wanted to continue living a reasonably active life. Know others that experienced similar events which I had previously questioned. Check and double check everything you are told - definitely anything prescribed. If not, you may find yourself lying in the dark, unconscious, bleeding and eventually learning that lying there was the result of care you previously trusted. Only through personal research, deductions and elimination was I able to discover the problem. Resulting from no less than six providers accessing computer data, none apparently talking to the other, just viewing the laptop screen with patient's data.

Governments, the buffoons we continue electing, have destroyed or allowed the unscrupulous to dismantle valuable basic structures serving American citizens. Government at every level continues the overreach, incompetence and deceit that's quickly killing America. Actions of HOAs, the endless turmoil in city government, ridiculous dictates from Tallahassee, plus the never-ending clown show in Washington, D.C., with no end in sight from any of them. "Managed Care" is regrettably replacing quality care, valued relationships and honesty with slick marketing and phone apps. America's primary, basic healthcare is now robotic. Valued, needed quality crumbles, sadly more bricks falling from the wall of this once great nation for highly questionable justifications.

Jerry Turk Fernandina Beach

Take a hint from New Hope There's more to consider in our quaint town than just free parking vs. three-hour parking limits. I live in New Hope, Pa. and Fernandina Beach, Fla. Like Fernandina, New Hope is a very historical area with a quaint downtown. In New Hope, I've seen free parking turn into paid parking, and I've witnessed a horrible evolution of paid parking implementation.

New Hope first installed traditional parking meters and have since moved to an app-only system with unsightly signs hung willy-nilly directing people to use the app and directing people to use devices that resemble small ATMs located every 30 to 40 yards or so. The traditional meters accepted credit cards and coins and were easy to use and understand; the app-based system has led to confusion and ugliness, both aesthetically and in "vibe." There's nothing historical about parking signs with app instructions. I think the overall look of Fernandina's downtown should be considered, including what signs they're going to start hanging to support a parking meter system. Let's not make signage a new feature in our beautiful town. Then, of course, there's the issue of the parking meter attendants. In New Hope, if you're 30 seconds late, there's a ticket waiting for you. Parking meter attendants will not stop typing into their device as people beg them not to leave a ticket. It really leaves a bad taste in people's mouths, and some visitors will not come back. Locals in New Hope rarely shop in the downtown anymore because it's a pain in the neck to deal with the parking app. A neighboring town, Doylestown, had the where-with-all to use meters that with a twist of a knob give you 15 free minutes to run into a store quickly. Another lousy feature of parking in New Hope is how the app rates vary by day of week and parking area; parking lots that are further away are less expensive. It can be as expensive as $3, 25 per hour to park! Locals by me will not pay those rates to stop in quickly to the shops. Gone are the days when a quarter got you a half hour. So, before Fernandina moves forward with parking, I urge the leaders of our community to think through all the aspects that come with metered parking: architecture/design, fee amount, attitude/training of meter attendants, and the overall vibe of our very awesome downtown. Audrey Hughes Fernandina Beach