BATON ROUGE (AP) — The House budget committee is wading into the debate over whether the state should build a new LSU public hospital in New Orleans or gut and renovate the old one.
Charity Hospital was flooded by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and has been shuttered ever since.
The university decided against renovating the hospital, known as Big Charity, in favor of constructing a new teaching facility nearby. LSU says it would be too costly to renovate and wouldn’t provide the best standard of care.
But preservationists say Big Charity could be renovated. They say that would be cheaper and faster, while keeping intact a historic neighborhood that will be torn down for a new hospital.
The House Appropriations Committee discusses the issue Thursday.
