Gov. John Bel Edwards assured a Shreveport audience today that the north Louisiana city will not lose the LSU Health Sciences Center to Baton Rouge.
“I want to set the record straight on a rumor,” Edwards said during a speech at the Shreveport Rotary Club. “I’m telling you as governor, nobody is going to move the medical school out of Shreveport. We have some work to do to strengthen and revitalize it, but it’s not going anywhere.”
Some lawmakers have said they fear LSU will eventually move the LSU Health Sciences Center from Shreveport to Baton Rouge.
Edwards is in north Louisiana today to tour the Cyber Innovation Center and technology software company CSRA, both in Bossier City, The USA Today Network of Louisiana reports. Edwards also spoke to the Shreveport Rotary Club before embarking on an afternoon tour of the Port of Caddo-Bossier.
The Edwards administration is negotiating a new management contract with the Biomedical Research Foundation of Northwest Louisiana, which operates state-owned charity hospitals in Shreveport and Monroe, days after a deadline for the foundation to accept a new agreement lapsed.
The foundation took over management of the hospitals after former Gov. Bobby Jindal privatized nine LSU-run hospitals and their clinics through no-bid contracts.
All the other hospital and clinic operators have signed renegotiated agreements with the Edwards administration that include similar terms to what is being sought with BRF.
Edward said he remains optimistic the state can reach a deal with BRF to continue operating the safety net hospitals in Shreveport and Monroe, despite a current stalemate.
Edwards also said he will travel to Washington, D.C., Wednesday for the third time in three weeks to lobby for additional federal aid to assist with the recovery of the March flood that primarily affected northern Louisiana and the August flood disaster in southern Louisiana that claimed 13 lives.
He said any federal package will be shared in northern Louisiana.
