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June 22, 2007
Cause and effect
I walked out to the hotel pool to check on the kids, and on the way back in this above-the-fold lead story in the complimentary copy of USA Today caught my eye:
New Orleans deaths up 47%Post-Katrina surge as city's lost doctors
By Steve Sternberg
USA TODAYHurricane Katrina's tragic aftermath lingered for at least a year after the storm abated, boosting New Orleans' death rate last year by 47% compared with two years before the levees broke, researchers reported Thursday.
Doctors say the dramatic surge in deaths comes as no surprise in a city of 250,000 mostly poor and middle-class people who lost seven of 22 hospitals and half of the city's hospital beds. More than 4,486 doctors were displaced from three New Orleans parishes, creating a shortage that still hampers many hospitals, says a companion study released Thursday.
A few minutes later, I'm futzing around on my free (!) in-room wifi, rebooking flights to come home a day early, and this nola.com headline catches my eye:
Feds want plans for downtown hospital scaled back
Posted by Washington bureau June 21, 2007 10:29PMBy Bill Walsh and Jan Moller
Staff writersWASHINGTON -- The Bush administration made it clear Thursday that it has serious problems with Louisiana's plan for a 484-bed teaching and research hospital in downtown New Orleans, sending Gov. Kathleen Blanco and state lawmakers scrambling to defend the project they hope will help revitalize the hurricane-worn city.
...
At the same time, [HUD Secretary Alphonso] Jackson took aim at virtually every aspect of the proposed teaching and research facility, including the size, cost, scope and long-term viability. He called state estimates of local demand for hospital beds "inflated"...
The Ben & Jerry's in the hotel gift shop is now catching my eye, since it seems to be one of the few affordable means of self-medication around any more.
Posted by ray at June 22, 2007 10:48 AM | Permalink
Categories: [katrina | new orleans | politics ]
Comments
I hear ya. I completely went off on this one this morning. As I say almost every day now... "Hey, it could be worse, I could live in Haiti." Whatever gets me out of bed in the morning eh... And to think I've only been back 7 months and I'm already trying to decide if I can live without po-boys again :-\
Posted by: mitraillette at June 22, 2007 1:56 PM
For ged's sake, Ray, don't do it! You know Ben & Jerry's is just a gateway to harder stuff, like tiramisu...
Posted by: Pat at June 22, 2007 2:55 PM
I guess you can't expect someone with such an abysmal record on health care to understand the need for a hospital. More's the pity.
Posted by: Miss Syl at June 22, 2007 8:39 PM
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