If you follow the letters to the editor in the Gazette you know all has not been well at the emergency room of the new, expanded Ellis Hospital in Schenectady. Patients have reported waits of up to 10 or 12 hours, which is not exactly what we expected the “streamlining” to look like that the state’s Berger Commission recommended a year and a half ago.

So what’s going on? I talked to the hospital’s CEO, Jim Connolly, and he assured me things are getting better – more treatment areas have been brought on line and more beds for those who need to be admitted – but it’s clear the hospital was not prepared for what happened in mid-June when neighboring St. Clare’s went out of business and Ellis took over.

Even though St. Clare’s emergency room remained open, and still remains open, a lot of people apparently regarded it as no longer a viable place to go, since it no longer had beds for in-patients, so Ellis experienced an increase of emergency visits beyond what it could handle.

What was the rush? Why was the takeover done before preparations had been completed? As far as I can discover, because St. Clare’s was in such dire financial condition that it could no longer continue. It was broke and getting broker.

As for the effort afoot in Schenectady to undo the change and to re-open St. Clare’s as a full-service hospital, I believe it’s an exercise in fruitless nostalgia. It ain’t gonna happen.

For a somewhat fuller account of this intriguing issue, please see my column in today’s (Thursday’s) Gazette.