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NEWS & LETTERS, January-February 2005Community fights hatchet job on hospitalLos Angeles--The Southern Christian Leadership Council, Los Angeles (SCLCLA), and the Martin Luther King Legacy Association (MLKLA) sponsored a “Save King/Drew” forum on Jan. 15 at the Watts Labor Community Action Center. King/Drew serves a large population of poor Blacks and Latinos. The topic, “What is the Hospital to Be,” took into consideration a report by Navigant and extremely one-sided and politically motivated “reporting” by the LOS ANGELES TIMES. 150 people attended, including union members and spokespersons, grassroots activists, community members, King/Drew staff, including doctors and nurses, religious leaders and elected political officials. There were very few youths present. Navigant is a private turnaround corporation, hired by the Los Angeles County Board of supervisors for $13.2 million to analyze problems and recommend solutions. Many see its assessment and solutions as being against the interests of the poor community. During the forum, a King/Drew staff member said that Navigant people never spoke to nurses at residences; they just talked with the “chiefs.” A Jan. 6 LOS ANGELES SENTINEL article titled “Assemblyman Mervyn Dymally Responds to Navigant’s King/Drew 60 Day Report,” states:
The report proposes elimination of the pediatric and intensive care units, downgrading the neonatal unit, eliminating some residency programs, outsourcing essential services, including pharmaceutical services, adding more management positions, and says nothing about bringing back the Trauma Center. The article ends:
After the mass demonstration and hearing last November and the L. A. County Board of Supervisors vote to “temporarily” close the Trauma Center, the LOS ANGELES TIMES published many articles attacking King/Drew Medical Center. The Dec. 8 issue featured four Black and Latina victims of “incompetent,” “lazy,” “cheating,” and “unqualified” nurses, doctors and pharmacists, without once accusing management, nor Dr. Thomas Garthwaite of the L. A. County Department of Health Services, nor mentioning the acute shortage of staffing. The article completely ignored the hours of testimony by community and staff members at a November hearing (See December 2004 N&L). Presently, there are over 200 nursing vacancies out of 500 plus positions. On Jan. 8, a union representative stated that the county cut over 100 nursing positions last year. Those who remain are forced to work under an impossible load as if they were machines and not human beings with no time for caring or humane treatment. This is in spite of temporary nurses filling some of the slots. During the forum, when a nurse spoke of a need for specially trained nurses at pediatric ICU, a doctor said that goes for neonatal care as well. Of the many testimonies of substance, one was by a Black woman who grew up in the neighborhood. As an eight-year-old child, she was impressed by the ethnic diversity at King/Drew, but when she started to work there, she didn’t know of all the internal problems. She is now a shop steward and said the crisis has been building for years. She said there should be ten RNs but there are only three, morale is low, and the problem is management, especially Dr. Thomas Garthwaite, who has not been doing his part. The Jan. 15 forum ended with public comment. Then Maxine Waters had the original King/Drew Mission Statement read: to provide treatment with competence and compassion. She stated that we don’t want a community clinic. We want a comprehensive quality medical health center that includes a medical school. --Basho |
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