www.newsandletters.org
|
|
NEWS & LETTERS, December 2004Trauma at L.A.'s King-Drew HospitalLos Angeles—The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted Nov. 23 on the recommendation of Thomas Garthwaite, chief administrator of L.A. County Health Services, to close the King-Drew Hospital trauma center in the Watts-Willowbrook-Compton area whose residents are Black and Latino. Trauma treatment differs from emergency care. It means life or death to the patient, often due to loss of blood, wounds to vital organs from auto accidents or gunshot wounds, or the patient stops breathing. As every second counts, proximity is important. The crisis has been building up through years of neglect by high level county administrators and the Board of Supervisors. Recently, according to the LOS ANGELES SENTINEL, "When Dr. Thomas Garthwaite declared that King-Drew had to be 'decompressed' to ensure saving the hospital, confusion and chaos ensued. The one way for King-Drew to be saved was to close its trauma center," Garthwaite recommended. The community came out strongly in opposition. mass street protest There was an organized mass street demonstration Nov. 15 followed by hours of hearings before the board and Dr. Garthwaite. It was attended by over a thousand people, mostly Black but also many Latinos and whites, and some Asians, all urging to keep the trauma center open. Among the protesters were a coalition of many community organizations including members of Union Local 660 representing L.A. county workers, California Nurses Association, California Women's Law Center, Friends of King-Drew (a group of doctors and community leaders), ACORN and Metropolitan Alliance (grassroots organizations), NAACP, many, many individual members of the community, staff and students from King-Drew Hospital and medical center, as well as numerous religious leaders and government representatives including Rep. Maxine Waters, Mervyn Dymally, Jesse Jackson, Yolanda King (daughter of Martin Luther King), and Mayor James Hawn. The public comments overwhelmingly refuted the Board of Supervisors and Dr. Garthwaite's position, as well as the negative mass media publicity which exaggerated recent King-Drew deaths as medical incompetence. A hospital staff member said the problem is administrative, that the trauma center is functioning well. Another said, "They're trying to balance the budget on our backs." An NAACP member said the board and Dr. Garthwaite did not fill vacant slots of doctors and nurses, and now they want to blame the staff. A doctor testified that in hospitals located in L.A. County, 6,000 patients die yearly due to medical errors. Another person stated that King-Drew has 21 doctors per 100,000 population compared to a west side hospital with 200 doctors per 100,000 population. LITTLE CHANCE OF REOPPENNING Los Angeles City Councilman Martin Ludlow said that "the Board of Supervisors would like to make us believe this is a South Los Angeles problem, but you and I know we've got a regional health care problem." The historical record that once a unit is "temporarily closed" it never reopens is refuting the Board of Supervisors' claim that they are "temporarily closing" the trauma center in order to save the rest of King-Drew Hospital. Diverting funds that now operate a functioning trauma center under "suspension" begs a question—where will you get the funds later to re-open the trauma center in today's debt-filled economic crises? The nurses have been working for over a year without a contract and the Department of Health Services has been hiring temporary nurses rather than filling the many empty permanent slots. According to Dr. Garthwaite, the threat of closing the entire hospital stems from loss of federal accreditation, translating into loss of millions in federal funds. Loss of accreditation also resulted from a critical shortage of janitors which occurred after the board contracted out janitorial services. A Black woman legal assistant stated that the county would like to get out of the health care business. The Board of Supervisors recently voted to subsidize a new trauma center at the private California Hospital in downtown Los Angeles. This enhances the gentrification process ongoing in downtown, which is pushing longtime low income tenants out in the streets. —Basho |
|
Home l News & Letters Newspaper l Back issues l News and Letters Committees l Dialogues l Raya Dunayevskaya l Contact us l Search Published by News and Letters Committees |
