To the Editor,

As a life-long resident of Beaufort County, my wife Ginny and I have been watching what has been happening in the Beaufort County are surrounding health care. I spent eight-years in the North Carolina House of Representatives working to make projects like the East Carolina Heart Institute and the ECU Dental School of Medicine realities. My wife spent her career in nursing as a supervisor at Martin County Health Department in Williamston, helping to deliver babies at Vidant Beaufort Hospital in Washington and at the Beaufort County Health Department. We both know how important health care is to the quality of life and the economic vitality of eastern North Carolina.

We recently toured the new multispecialty clinic in Belhaven and it is impressive. People in eastern Beaufort and Hyde counties now have the newest equipment and facilities and a dedicated staff that want to help people with chronic conditions like diabetes and heart trouble that continue to plague us in the east.

The employees’ enthusiasm was contagious. They eagerly showed us the new ultrasound machine that will be taking prenatal pictures for mothers to be, and we got a tutorial on the X-ray machine’s capabilities to help diagnose broken bones. We walked through the new physical therapy room and we looked out at a brand new helicopter pad.

The eagerness from the employees was matched by the people from the Belhaven community. They came in droves to see the new clinic. The business owners we talked to were quick to talk about the $6 million building as an improvement to the community. This new state-of-the-art clinic will help us recruit and train high-quality doctors and nurses right here in Beaufort county.

My wife and I are thankful that Vidant Health stayed in Belhaven. We think that this model of care that combines primary care with specialty services and 24-hour-a-day accessibility will become the rural health care model of the future. We think people from all over the state will be coming to eastern North Carolina soon to see this new model of health care.

We all have something we can be proud of.

 

Honorable Arthur Williams
Former House member of the N.C. General Assembly