Southern Loudoun Hospitals Need to be in Dulles South

While our eyes have frankly been glazed over by the back and forth between HCA and INOVA, being fought in newspaper and mailed advertisements ("HCA's in the wrong location!" and "The new hospital needs to be near the Ashburn population Center"!), a recent mailing caught our eye, and we'll be turning more attention towards this issue as it materializes. (We just read through the comments and diatribe over on the Living in Loco - sure to be more to come!).

A mailer came out from the "Hospital Alliance for Southern Loudoun", mailed out of Middleburg. Can't seem to find any info on this group online, nor in the mailer, other than its plea for a "Hospital in Southern Loudoun where the need for services and convenient access to care is so desperately needed". We obviously, totally agree with this statement, though it would be nice to know specifically whether this is a backer with financial interest of some sort, of INOVA.

With a large family, we've made many trips to the hospital over the years from South Riding - electing usually, in the middle of the night, to go to Fair Oaks - it's the most direct and familiar route to us. Births have been over at Fairfax, given their reputation for excellence in all types of OB/GYN areas, including emergencies (although our last couple of experiences there were far less satisfactory than the first few). We've been to the occasional specialist at Manassas - but haven't actually ever gone to Leesburg. It's simply to far, and, frankly, a bit of an unknown area to those of us down here in SouthEastern Loudoun (Dulles South) area.

While the new Dulles South Urgent Care facilities recently opened on Rt. 50 are somewhat helpful, we absolutely need a "real" hospital in this area - and one that isn't "blocked" from our access by the nightmare traffic (during rush hours) heading into Fairfax on 50, heading up to the Ashburn/Brambleton area, or south into Manassas.

So, we are entirely in favor of the message put out by this "Hospital Alliance for Southern Loudoun" - though we don't really care whether it's HCA or INOVA who develops land already owned on Rt. 50. Just get the hospital done, be sure to proffer improvements to th Rt. 50 and North/South routes in and out, and be sure to become active, involved members of the Dulles South community.