It is time for the owners of this hospital, you and me, to be heard.

The appointed hospital board is telling the owners, you, me and the board of supervisors, that we have no right to know the financial condition of our hospital.

Further, we the owners are being told the sale of this hospital is none of our business. This hospital board is appointed by the board of supervisors, who the citizens of Natchez and Adams County elected to be in charge of our interests, including Natchez Regional Medical Center.

I, along with some 50 other citizens, attended a board of supervisors meeting in reference to a situation involving a decision which had been made by the above appointed hospital board. The suggestion was made by a citizen for the elected board of supervisors to override the hospital board.

The supervisors’ attorney was asked if they could do this. The attorney’s reply was they could vote to do so, but the vote would mean nothing because of a law, which states that once an appointee is placed on the hospital board, our elected supervisor has no further authority.

The appointee cannot be removed, and the supervisors cannot, even by a majority vote, override the appointed hospital board. I do not believe this to be correct. As Judge Judy states, “if it doesn’t make sense, it usually is not true.”

And this does not make sense. I do not believe an appointed, volunteer board can override an elected board (supervisors). Even if there is some law to this effect, I believe the law to be unconstitutional and should be changed.

As a citizen of Natchez and Adams county my entire life, I am asking each of you, as I have and will  continue, to get involved by contacting your supervisor and be heard on this matter. Contact The Democrat and/or channels 3 and 12. We need to get public and be heard.

I am asking each of our five supervisors to stop the sale of our hospital until:

• The financial situation of NRMC has been made public, including the multi-million dollar settlement paid to NRMC a short while ago. What happened to this money? Is there a cover up? The hospital CEO during this period has retired.

• What happened to the multi-million dollar settlement, plus the day-to-day finances received? And our hospital is still in debt.

• Should there be an internal investigation of our hospital?

• Will it be necessary for a lawsuit to be filed to correct these matters concerning our hospital?

Jerry Mcdaniel

Natchez