I know you are wounded, as I am also injured.

It is as if we have been battered and bruised and kicked to the side of the road, left there alone to suffer. An ignored problem will soon be forgotten; at least, that is their contention.

We have screamed out our maladies and concerns to those in closed, cold rooms, those with mechanical minds that churn out debits and credits but cannot relate to the beating hearts that are suffering. Our voices somehow are transformed into whispers only audible to ourselves. Our words uttered are lost in translation, for their concern is their bottom line; our concern is for the welfare of both patient and physician.

Were our voices timid, not filled with the strength of conviction so that they were absorbed into the background of corporate chatter? Did we wait too long to sound the siren of concern? Did we somehow think there was goodness and morality in the hearts of all mankind, only to find out that we had been led astray? Promises and oaths taken to “do no harm” seem less important than ten-year corporate plans forged by those who know nothing about caring for the sick and ailing.

So, we both, doctors and patients, feel neglected and rejected by those who claim to be working for the betterment of all.

Patients deserve to be healed. Physicians want to fulfill their oaths but are morally injured and emotionally worn. So, they struggle to survive, and some leave when the struggle becomes too much to endure.

The ailing patient seeks care only to see new faces who don’t understand and who do not have the time to come to understand. For they are soon beaten down by the tenets of corporate health.

The time has come to wake up from our drowsiness and from the assumption that our well-being was another’s focus. They, corporate heads who sit in their ivory towers, apparently do not perceive the urgency of the resolution of a crisis that has been heating up and now has reached its boiling point. Physicians are leaving to save their sanity; patients are falling by the wayside because no physician is standing at the ready to serve them. We, as patients, must now be content to see physician replacements because we no longer have a choice. Replacements who, generally, are lacking in education and experience but come as a cost-saving for the corporate bosses.

Together, we must sound the call for action, an action that must occur in the “here and now” rather than in the loosely defined “future” years. Lives are at stake, and the future of health care is in jeopardy. Some have said, “The nail is already in the coffin.”

Are you part of the solution, or are you part of the problem? Let us use our combined voices to bring about positive change in a situation that has been allowed to smolder for some time and has now exploded into flames of destruction.

Physician leaders use their power and influence to support the rights of patients and physicians. Gather the flock together. There is power and protection in numbers, and there is, in actuality, a fox stalking in the henhouse.

Michele Luckenbaugh is a patient advocate.