Answers needed re loss of vascular surgeon

When bad news is brought, shoot the messenger.

That’s an old rule in petty politics and one that has been employed by vascular surgeon Dr. Rex Dunn in his not-so-thinly veiled attack on the well-respected Dr. Mahmood Naqvi by his defence that Cape Breton is well served by vascular surgeons (“Vascular surgery woes overstated, says Sydney physician,” Cape Breton Post, May 10).

Dr. Dunn is .6 (point 6) of the requirements of Cape Bretoners who require this type of health care. I’m confused what .6 means but it was pointed out by Dr. Dunn that he is still in practice and devotes a day a week to this imperative exercise. Ah, the beauty of Halifax-oriented statistics. These have so improved our health services in Cape Breton.

Oh, but not to be forgotten is the additional contribution provided by a Halifax surgeon who once a month who flies in to see to vascular matters, ostensibly those exempt from the .6 care.

Dr. Naqvi is a Cape Breton icon. He has served/serves a grateful community, both as a surgeon and a recruiter of doctors, something that has slipped away from local authority.

But Dr. Naqvi had the temerity to criticize. He said there could be and probably was a loss of limbs among citizens and one of the causes of this was longer wait times for proper care. Dunn said no, wanting evidence. That’s his privilege, but who will give evidence, Halifax or Cape Breton? We have recently lost a vascular surgeon. What was the reason he left? Surely the citizens who pay for our provincial health deserve to know. But we are assured that all is well in our .6 community, plus, of course, one day a month from a Halifax surgeon.

Cape Breton deserves to know more about this and does not need a personal attack to justify what Dr. Dunn call acceptable service. This is a bully’s way and one that the people of Cape Breton don’t deserve. Ron MacDonald Sydney Mines