Letter to the editor: A physician's view: Murrell Smith delivers for Sumter's health

As a physician who has practiced in Sumter for over 20 years, I see every day what good health policy does for real patients. Speaker Murrell Smith's work has changed what we can offer this community.

I serve as medical director of Patriot Village, Sumter's new nursing home for veterans. It is a beautiful facility, bright, modern and designed to feel like home rather than an institution. The men and women who served our country now receive excellent care in a place worthy of their service, close to their families. That would not have happened without Speaker Smith's leadership.

I also treat patients for addiction at Sumter Behavioral Health Services. As a member of House Ways and Means, Speaker Smith secured more than $3 million to build its current facility, a warm, welcoming place where patients feel respected the moment they walk in. As he became Speaker, he secured another $550,000 for women's and adolescent services, so people who could never afford treatment can now get it. He has also pushed for tighter restrictions on substances that put our young people at risk. I have watched patients rebuild their lives because that help is available here at home.

His record reaches across the state. He supported a crisis intervention unit and telepsychiatry in our emergency department, expanded telemedicine in rural South Carolina and helped bring COVID-19 testing to residents during the pandemic. He led the effort to create a brain health and rehabilitation hospital in Columbia and secured funding for the new children's hospital at MUSC.

Every one of these projects is a patient getting the right care at the right time. That is the measure of a legislator's work. Murrell Smith has met it again and again, and I am grateful to have him representing us.

EDDIE MEYERS, M.D.

Sumter