From my point of view, the way the construction at Southern Ohio Medical Center is being done is plain stupidity. I think the executives that are in charge of SOMC could care less about their patients or the doctors that rent the office space from them.

With no more space than they have around the hospital, common sense would be to do one construction job at a time. But no, not the executives at SOMC. Those guys have to have two major construction jobs going on at the same time.

The last time I was at the hospital they only had two entrances into the hospital, one at C building and the other at the emergency entrance. And valet parking at both entrances.

My friend and I waited in line for more than 10 minutes for a parking attendant to show up to park the vehicle. After the long wait, we drove around to C building and he got a parking attendant with no problems.

Don't get me wrong, the parking attendants are doing a good job. The problem is, you have so much traffic coming and going with only two ways to enter the hospital. And one of the entrances is a death trap waiting to happen, by using the emergency entrance that is designated for emergency patients only.

This entrance should never be used as a main entrance into the hospital. If the executives in charge would have held off on the construction at the rear of the hospital until after the front of the hospital was done, it would have given you more entrances into the hospital.

And it would have made it more safe and convenient for the patients or who ever to enter the hospital.

They're making decisions on the hospital construction as if they were working on a shopping mall.

On top of all the traffic at the hospital, they put an article in the Portsmouth Daily Times that one of the largest cranes in the country is on the work site.

Well, la te da, that's all they need - more people at the hospital checking out the big crane.

They need to put an article in the paper that reads: “If you have any appointments at SOMC, be at the hospital no later than 30 minutes before your appointment.”

This will give you time to find a parking spot. I really think the bottom line to all the big rush and to all these poor decisions is because they want to get everything done before the new King's Daughters Hospital on Scioto Trail, across from Kinney's Lane, goes up into operation.

The executives at SOMC can't stand the competition. They proved that when they succeeded in putting Mercy Hospital out of business.

And after they went out of business, they purchased the property and had the hospital removed. And now they have an SOMC emergency room on the property. Now, I would like to see King's Daughters build a much larger hospital here in Portsmouth. Competition is always good for the public.

I really feel sorry for the employees and the staff at SOMC for having to listen to all the complaints caused by the construction and the way that some of them have to park their vehicles at another parking lot away from the hospital and ride a shuttle to the hospital.

Ray Mitchell

McDermott