To the editor:

I learned last week that the Whidbey General Hospital board president “requested a police presence” because the July meeting “became tense due to comments made by hospital critics Mark Borden and Robert Born.”

Being an aging codger, I am flattered that two police officers were in attendance — finally, some respect! The board calls it bullying; I call it holding people in high places accountable.

I thought the board knew I had moved on from attending such meetings. I told them in July that I would instead communicate with concerned Whidbey citizens via my whidbeygeneralreformers.org website. Before that, I privately tried to get the board to deal with two key issues, the unjustified dismissal of its emergency department director, and the illegal conflicts of interest Dr. Zaveruha has in serving on the board while being the hospital’s emergency medical services director, trauma director and so on.

Though I tried to avoid airing Whidbey General’s “dirty laundry,” I now promise to inform citizens of an issue or scandal each week, indefinitely. To date I’ve published over 14,000 words of documented investigative journalism. The board’s response: No comment.

With a dozen new reports outlined, I will continue to unearth millions of dollars in waste, rampant cronyism and good-old-boy dealings, and how patients’ health and very lives are being jeopardized.

I fervently hope that by shedding light on how dysfunctional our hospital has become, there will be a public outcry leading to desperately-needed reform. If you want to save this hospital, please become informed and then demand action.

ROB BORN

Greenbank