Department of Health addresses doctors urging Navicent McDonald’s removal

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – Macon-Bibb County Department of Health Board members met on Monday to hear from health professionals who say the McDonald’s located inside Navicent Health needs to be removed.

One woman with the District Nursing and Clinical Services Department says more than just their patients are in danger if it stays.

“It’s not only a risk for people who are in the hospital it’s a risk for our population in general,” said Director Anita Barken.

She and others in the medical community are asking Navicent Health to get away from the golden arches.

“As we know, we have a problem with obesity in Georgia, we have a problem with heart disease and diabetes and we can’t get to a healthier place without providing access to healthier foods.”

She was one of many concerned public health officials who wanted to make Macon-Bibb Department of Health Board members aware of the mixed messages.

“When a doctor tells a patient that he’s pre-diabetic or has heart disease to eat lower fat food healthier food fruits and vegetables, and then the patient walks out of the hospital and can grab a big mac, it just seems contradictory,” said Physicians Committee member Leslie Rudloff.

Rudloff says the hospital’s contract with McDonald’s allows them to make more money with more sales.

“The hospital actually benefits from McDonald’s selling more food and more big mac’s.” She continued, “It’s in the best interest of the residents, their patients, the visitors to offer healthy food as opposed to fast food.”

Barken says her fear is that people in the community without access to healthy food are at risk of keeping up an unhealthy lifestyle.

“Grand parents, aunts and uncles do not have access to fresh fruits and vegetables, so when they go to see a family member and their only food choice is a food that’s high in fat and high in calories and sugar, those are the choices that they have and those are the choices that they’ll eat,” she added.

She says she hopes to discuss healthier replacement option with Navicent in the future.

Navicent Health responded at the meeting saying they’re ‘very open’ to the conversation of looking into a new food option once their contract with McDonald’s finishes out.

The end of that contract is approaching in 2019.