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Eliot Estabrook of Milford is a retired university employee.
How many times in recent years have you tried to phone your medical provider and instead heard something to the effect of: “Your call is important to us, please stay on the line”? And you wait and wait.
How many times in recent years has your primary care provider changed, if you can find one? How long have you had to wait for a medical provider that is needed urgently? Days, weeks, months or in some cases more than a year? How many times have you needed urgent care at a walk-in and they were closed that day, or even permanently?
And yet Bangor has two fine hospitals: Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center and St. Joseph Hospital. Across the Penobscot River is a very high-quality oncological center, the Lafayette Family Cancer Institute. Admittedly there are significant financial issues surrounding medical providers at present. That’s a negative.
There is another Bangor area negative. The Bangor Mall that is nearly becoming a ghost town. Remember the huge traffic jams on and around Stillwater Avenue during holidays? Many out-of-state visitors and many from New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
There is still significant traffic along that stretch of Stillwater Avenue. Why? Because it is very strategically located and accessible.
By vehicle there is an I-95 entrance/exit on both the north and south sides of the mall area. It’s not very far from Bangor International Airport. The University of Maine in Orono is a straight shot up Stillwater Avenue. And Maine-wide, Bangor is centrally located.
This column suggests putting two negatives together to create something positive. The seeds are there to correct the deficiencies of both. It just needs leadership and some money.
In my family history there is an example of a solution. In 1970, the University of Massachusetts Medical School opened in Worcester in a single-story building not too much unlike the Bangor Mall Sears building. My older brother was one of the 16 MD degree recipients of the first graduating class in 1974. Anyone who has driven through Worcester of late can see the huge medical facility that now exists.
It all started with the same seeds that Maine, and more particularly, Bangor has: a leader, a location, a need, and a lot of effort and resources. UMass’ first leader was Lamar Soutter. He was named founding dean in 1964 — six years before the first class. There was a single-story vacant building; a need for medical providers in Central Massachusetts; and, combined effort by the state and local government, UMass, many influential philanthropic parties (businessmen and organizations) and other parties to put this together.
So, the Bangor proposed solution might take form as follows. Invite Nirav Shah to become the founding dean. He has the credentials and experience. He is well respected in Maine. (He is thinking about throwing his hat into the governor’s race, but you don’t get it if you don’t at least ask him.) Maybe use some of the opioid settlement money to start the organizing process, maybe even a deposit on the former Sear’s building.
The need for doctors is well known in the area. Once the reaction starts, individuals and organizations can be the catalyst by supplying the funds.
What should the medical school be called? My offer is University of Maine Medical School, or simply “UMaine Med.”
