For months, two disgruntled former employees of Dartmouth College’s Geisel School of Medicine — Drs. Matthew Davis and Robert Murray — have publicly made false and irresponsible claims, most recently in an opinion piece in this newspaper, about Dartmouth-Hitchcock and the care provided to patients at New Hampshire Hospital.

Ironically, while these former employees profess to be committed to the well-being of seriously mentally ill patients, their overheated rhetoric has caused undue fear and anxiety in this very population, as well as for the families, advocates and providers who are dedicated, in word and in deed, to patient care at NHH. Until now, D-H has refrained from responding to their reckless misrepresentations, but the truth matters.

For nearly 30 years, clinical care at NHH was provided by employees of Dartmouth College’s Geisel School of Medicine pursuant to a state contract. Effective June 30 of this year, Geisel terminated the employment of most of its employees in the Department of Psychiatry, including the 19 providers at NHH. D-H, a separate entity, extended offers of employment to nearly all terminated employees and sought to continue the provision of psychiatric care at NHH.

These two disgruntled employees now claim they only wanted to negotiate their terms of employment with D-H. The truth is, unlike nearly 150 of their former colleagues who are now employed by D-H, these disgruntled providers refused to accept hand-delivered offer letters, or even to meet with D-H human resources representatives.

They falsely claim they were only seeking to maintain their prevailing level of compensation. The truth is they hired an attorney to send a demand letter that reads like a ransom note. The truth is they demanded their prevailing wage plus 30 percent, biannual cost of living adjustments, and unvested retirement contributions plus 20 percent, all benefits not offered to any other D-H employee. They falsely claim their efforts were focused on patient care. The truth is their demand letter contained a refusal to provide required overnight, weekend or holiday coverage at NHH or to provide contractually required care at the Sununu Youth Services Center or the Glencliff Home for the elderly.

They falsely claim that D-H summarily withdrew its offer of employment. The truth is their lawyer informed D-H that they intended to form a private practice group or seek employment elsewhere. Only then did D-H withdraw its offer of employment.

They falsely claim that D-H has closed its inpatient psychiatric unit in order to staff NHH. The truth is that D-H continues to maintain its high-quality inpatient psychiatric care without disruption.

They falsely claim that D-H would imperil care at NHH as it allegedly did at Riverview Psychiatric Center in Maine, and they draw a specious comparison to conditions — including the use of stun guns, pepper spray and handcuffs on patients — that resulted in Riverview’s loss of certification. The truth is that D-H is not, nor has it ever been, affiliated with Riverview. The truth is that D-H has never provided care at Riverview. The truth is that such abhorrent conditions, if true, have absolutely nothing to do with the care provided by D-H at NHH. It is tragic that vulnerable patients at NHH and the good people who serve them have been subjected to such contemptible scare tactics.

They malign the quality of care being provided by the staff at NHH, many of whom are their former colleagues, questioning their level of devotion to patient care. The truth is reflected in a letter to the Concord Monitor from NHH’s Associate Medical Director Alex deNesnera, one of those dedicated psychiatrists who remained at NHH to provide patient care. Dr. deNesnera wrote that, under D-H’s leadership, the professional staff at NHH continues to provide compassionate and competent care, including in the recently opened Inpatient Stabilization Unit.

The truth is that the mental health crisis in this country and in this state is not a recent phenomenon, nor is it of D-H’s making. I know because, as the United States Attorney for the District of New Hampshire, I was part of the team that successfully sued in federal court to redress the wholly inadequate allocation of resources to New Hampshire’s mental health system. In sharp contrast to those who engage in vindictive and destructive finger-pointing that does nothing to improve that system, D-H — the sole bidder on the state contract to provide clinical and administrative services at NHH — has stepped up to be part of the solution.

That’s the truth.

John P. Kacavas is chief legal officer and general counsel for Dartmouth-Hitchcock.