In Defense of OCHS
To the editor:
I have been going to Outer Cape Health Services in Wellfleet for the past eight years and am very happy with the care I have received. Ruth Bramson and Barbara Prazak are the best doctors I have ever had. The patient portal has greatly improved communication, allowing me to quickly review my records and get responses to my questions — often on the same day.
I’ve noticed a tendency for the Independent to focus on the challenges OCHS faces, including your most recent article, “Outer Cape Health Restructures as It Loses Top Staff” [Sept. 12, page A5]. While it’s true that recruiting and retaining primary-care providers in a rural, high-cost area like Cape Cod is difficult, this is not a problem unique to OCHS. Health centers across the country, especially in rural areas, struggle with the same issues. Many providers come straight out of school because of federal loan forgiveness programs, and once their obligations are fulfilled, they understandably move on to more lucrative, specialized positions.
It’s important to recognize how well OCHS managed the pandemic. The introduction of telehealth options was a game-changer, allowing patients to receive essential care without risking exposure. It demonstrated the organization’s adaptability and commitment to keeping the community safe while ensuring continuity of care.
I find the Independent’s emphasis on the negative troubling. From my perspective, the current administration is doing a commendable job in navigating these challenges. I would hope that our local paper might consider balancing its coverage by highlighting the positive work being done alongside the difficulties. OCHS is the only health center on the Outer Cape, and it deserves the community’s support as it continues to serve us under trying circumstances.
Jenny Faw
Eastham
Housing Development and Harm
To the editor:
Dan Katz’s stated concern in his letter to the editor last week [page A3] is that affordable housing “threatens the beauty” of the Cape Cod National Seashore. But no one is proposing to build affordable homes in the Seashore itself.
The letter suggests that the Park’s presence imposes a duty to minimize “building of any kind,” even outside the National Seashore, although the writer is silent about the harm inflicted on the Cape’s natural landscape by pricey residential development that conforms to the exclusionary zoning that governs construction here.
His environmental consciousness apparently stops at the bottom rung of the Outer Cape’s inflated residential real estate market. If your income prevents you from being able to pay the extravagant prices set by market demand, you are out of luck.
Yes, the government created the Seashore in the 1960s to preserve the Outer Cape’s fragile ecology, which was already threatened by people who, attracted by its natural beauty, were building homes and altering the landscape.
By restricting further development in the Seashore, the government may have redirected development to the land beyond the Park’s borders. Indeed, the presence of a vast expanse of protected land fuels spiraling property values and housing costs.
The letter writer argues that workers who are priced out of the housing market deserve to be better paid. But even in his make-believe high-wage utopia, the homes for sale here would be out of reach to most of the public- and service-sector workers our communities depend upon.
While we may want to halt development in the name of land conservation, we need homes for the essential people who keep the Outer Cape livable. That means building affordable housing, none of which needs to infringe on the National Seashore itself.
Carl Sussman
Wellfleet and Newton
Letters to the Editor
The Provincetown Independent welcomes letters from readers on all subjects. They must be signed with the writer’s name, home address, and telephone number (for verification). Letters will be published only if they have been sent exclusively to the Independent. They should be no more than 300 words and may be edited for clarity, accuracy, conciseness, and good taste. Longer pieces (up to 600 words) may be submitted for consideration as op-ed commentary. Send letters to [email protected] or by mail to P.O. Box 1034, Provincetown, MA 02657. The deadline for letters is Monday at noon for each week’s edition.
