Kudos and Kicks: The good, bad and questionable

Kick

A kick to NCH Healthcare System for ignoring the public outcry over its emerging policy to prevent personal physicians from admitting patients to the hospital and putting “hospitalists,” rather than those personal doctors, in charge of care.

The plan may, we repeat may, have merit but the degree to which the community has reacted negatively to the idea is extraordinary.

Try as we might, we can’t recall an issue in that has stirred such a one-sided reaction in opposition.

Naples City Council has pleaded for a pause. Collier County commissioners seem set to do the same next week.

For NCH not to take the time to share more information and fully explain the supposed benefits belies the nature of what NCH was founded to be — a community hospital.

Kick

A kick also to the Naples City Council, not for calling for a pause in the NCH initiative, but for an ironic turn that happened at the same meeting.

While council members asked the hospital system to heed the wishes of the community on the hospitalists issue, they failed to heed the wishes of that same community when it comes to establishing an ethics ordinance.

The group Ethics Naples collected enough signatures to put a referendum before voters that would establish a local board to rule on ethical questions arising within City Council.

Since then, the council has employed legal challenges to block that referendum. A vote Wednesday to establish an ethics commission without a referendum failed as well.

We don’t necessarily endorse any of the various plans for who would comprise such a commission or how it would operate, but if the council insists NCH should listen to the will of the people, we see no reason why it shouldn’t too, and a referendum is as good a means as any for gauging that will.

Kick

A kick to Lee County commissioners for hastily renaming a bridge named for Estero leader Don Eslick. Without mentioning Eslick by name, Commissioner Cecil Pendergrass proposed the change as a late addition to Tuesday’s agenda, saying the name should be changed from Estero Parkway Bridge to Estero Community Bridge.

The problem is, the name Estero Parkway Bridge has not been in use for some time. The bridge was named to honor Eslick, who led efforts to incorporate Estero as a village, six years ago.

Eslick deserves the honor and commissioners should rescind their action as soon as practical.

Kudos

Kudos to Lucky’s Market in East Naples for earning Collier County’s Waste Reduction Awards Program recognition.

According to a proclamation to be given Tuesday, the store is a strong advocate or recycling by, among other things, training staff in proper recycling practices and offering cash incentives for customers to bring reusable bags.

The occasion can be a reminder to all of us that there are proper and improper ways to recycle and doing it right can make in difference in extending the life of the county landfill and helping the environment.

Kudos

Kudos also to Wynn’s Market and the Wynn family’s Sunshine Ace Hardware, celebrating 80 years and 60 years, respectively, in business in Collier County.

Collier County commissioners will offer a proclamation recognizing the milestones Tuesday.

Brent Batten wrote this on behalf of the Daily News editorial board.