Official recommends tearing down charity hospitals

October 5, 2005

Posted 10/5/2005 4:02 PM

hospitals_x.htm

BATON ROUGE (AP) — New Orleans' two public hospitals should be torn

down because the damage inflicted by Hurricane Katrina has left

them " dangerous, dangerous places, " the head of Louisiana's charity

hospital system said Wednesday.

Charity and University hospitals " were issued their death warrant by

Katrina and the cataclysmic floods it spawned, " R. burg

told the Louisiana State University Board of Supervisors.

" Even before the storms, these old facilities were on the ropes, " he

said, noting that Charity was built in the 1930s and University in

the 1960s.

LSU officials had been pushing to replace the outdated facilities

before the hurricanes hit. Two weeks ago, they went to Washington to

plead their case for federal money to build new facilities.

burg, chief executive of the Louisiana State University Health

Care Services Division, said floods and winds did more than $340

million in damage at Charity Hospital, and $105 million at

University Hospital.

" The buildings have unsafe air to breathe, pervasive mold growing,

and mechanical systems that were completely destroyed by the storm, "

burg said.

The two hospitals treated more than 500,000 patients a year.

Charity is also among hospitals being investigated by the state

attorney general because patients died there during the storm. At

least 140 elderly patients in New Orleans nursing homes and

hospitals died during Katrina or its aftermath.

The attorney general is looking into whether six hospitals and 13

nursing homes mishandled evacuations of patients, abandoned them

during Katrina or put them to death to spare them further pain.

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