A Beebe Healthcare official testified at the Belle Mead public hearing in support of the application, and the following week, the same official testified before Sussex County Council stating more affordable housing for medical techs is needed. The official was very convincing. For each doctor hired, they need six techs. Physicians can afford the $600,000 new homes, but staff cannot. The only testimony for approval of this project was this Beebe official. There were over a dozen who testified against it.
If the population increases by thousands by building Cool Spring Crossing, Love Creek Farm apartments and other projects already approved, certainly we will need more physicians, nurses and techs. Creating 30 or 40 affordable apartments at Belle Mead/Love Creek Farm would equate to five or six physicians’ employees having a market-rate apartment. The apartments at Belle Mead will not cover the number of units that will be needed for medical tech employees for the thousands of new residents moving into the area. In the coastal area, we need more auto mechanics, daycare facilities, veterinarians and vet techs, elder care professionals, senior facilities and workers, and all service workers. These affordable units will be occupied by any and all service workers mentioned above, not just medical staff. What I am personally hearing from my providers is the load of patients they are required to see each day for insurance purposes is the reason that physicians and FNPs are leaving and going into private practice, specialty medicine or concierge medicine.
Perhaps Beebe officials and its board of directors could gather resources to buy land and build a housing complex for medical professionals. This is a great idea. Maybe the developer of the Belle Mead-Love Creek Farm project and the project’s supporters who were present for the hearing could build medical housing strictly for the Beebe tech staff and nurses. Let’s not approve a change-of-zone application for a hypothetical scenario of medical personnel who may reside in these apartments. It does not make sense to increase the traffic load on Route 24 over the two-lane Love Creek bridge by 344 apartments anymore than it makes sense that all 40 affordable apartments offered by the developer will be occupied by medical professionals.
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