Dear Editor,

On March 1, I attended the protest at Pontiac Community Hospital in Shawville over the closure of the obstetrics ward for the next six months. There was probably . . .

more than 100 people present and the CBC and CTV news crews were on hand to report and vocalize our views.

If we don’t stand up for our rights now we will lose the obstetrics ward forever and then what is next? We must all fight for this together. Instead of Aylmer and Hull people coming to Shawville to get medical aid we will all have to go to Hull and Gatineau with already overcrowded hospitals.

This closure will probably put a much larger strain on the paramedics who more than likely will be having to deliver a baby during transport. And guess what, there will be no doctors or nurses present.

It’s so funny how we operated this hospital for so many years without any outside interference and we managed quite well.

Diane Boisvert

Vinton, Que.