Members of the Capital Area Legislative Delegation will join several community groups at a press conference Wednesday at the State Capitol to discuss the pending closure of Baton Rouge General Medical Center’s Mid City emergency room.
The Campaign for Healthcare for Everyone Louisiana, a grassroots organization, is spearheading the press conference. Though organizers aren’t prepared yet to say what exactly they’ll be asking for, Rep. Pat Smith, D-Baton Rouge, says the group will propose specific solutions.
“We are going to talk about what we think the state needs to be doing,” Smith says. “This is not just to vent. This is to talk about things that need to be done.”
Last week, Baton Rouge General announced that mounting financial losses of as much as $2 million per month will force the hospital to close its emergency room within 60 days.
Hospital officials have since said they are working on plans to make more urgent care clinics available to the uninsured and underinsured population that rely heavily on the Mid City ER for medical care. But so far, no details have emerged.
Mayor Kip Holden says he is letting state and local health care officials, the Baton Rouge Area Chamber and the Baton Rouge Area Foundation take the lead on identifying possible sites for urgent care clinics or even a new emergency room somewhere in North Baton Rouge.
“I’m not sitting in the room with them because that is above my situation, from a medical perspective,” Holden says. “I am dealing with it from a people perspective … and making sure no one dies unnecessarily.”
The closure of the Mid City emergency room, which treated some 45,000 patients last year, is drawing attention nationwide. The Los Angeles Times is the latest national media outlet to spotlight the crisis and some of the reasons behind it.
Alma Stewart, who founded the Campaign for Healthcare for Everyone Louisiana and is organizing Wednesday’s press conference, says the situation is more dire than many people realize.
“We want to make sure that the community is aware of what this is going to mean,” Stewart says. “In the past two years we’ve had Earl K. Long close, Women’s Hospital move to Pecue and now with the ER in Mid City that’s three hospital ERs that will no longer be available in the inner city.”
The press conference is scheduled for 10 a.m. on the steps of the State Capitol. —Stephanie Riegel
