Langley residents take fight for clinic to Coupeville

A group of Langley residents concerned about the closure of Langley Clinic plan to attend the Whidbey General Hospital Board meeting Monday to make a case for keeping a physician in town.

The group encourages people to attend the public meeting or send letters and e-mails to the board. The board will meet at 6 p.m., Monday, Sept. 8 in Conference Room A at the hospital in Coupeville.

A group of residents have been meeting with Mayor Paul Samuelson to find a way to keep the clinic going since Dr. Stan Whittemore announced that he would close the office on Oct. 31.

Langley resident Neil Colburn said Steve Shapiro, one of the owners of the building that houses the clinic, is willing to hand deliver letters to the board.

"The hospital needs to know that the citizens of Langley, indeed the people of South Whidbey, need a primary care facility in Langley," he said. "We have the highest concentration of subsidized housing on the South End, including Brookhaven and not having a primary care provider just doesn't make any sense."

The hospital board has the power and resources to make this happen, Colburn added.

Whittemore announced last month that he would retire from medicine and leave the island. He also wrote in a letter to his patients that medical records will be kept by Whidbey General's South Whidbey facility in Freeland.

The hospital board will discuss at its meeting the purchase of records from the Langley Clinic from Whittemore and the hospital’s role as a custodian of the records.

Concerned citizens can fax letters to the board to 331-5848 or e-mail them to Shapiro at shapiro@whidbey.com.

E-mails can also be sent directly to the board president Roger Case at rogerc@co.island.wa.us.

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