FEAR OF RACISM ACCUSATIONS KEEPS HOPELESS LOS ANGELES BLACK HOSPITAL GOING

Even after years of trying to fix it have failed. It's blacks who suffer, of course

A majority of the County Board of Supervisors has said it supports handing over management of the embattled Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center to a nearby public facility with a better track record. Meanwhile, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday pledged to do what he could to keep King/Drew running.

The hospital's fate was put in peril last week when federal regulators announced they would yank critical funding at the end of the year because of repeated lapses in patient care. Having Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, about 10 miles from King/Drew, manage the troubled hospital is one of several options the supervisors are mulling.

Harbor, a larger public hospital in Torrance, has avoided many of the problems that have plagued King/Drew - a hospital built after the 1965 Watts riots to provide care for largely poor and minority South Los Angeles communities. "I think that Harbor would be what I would support," said Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, whose district includes King/Drew. "Obviously, Harbor is a hospital in my district that I believe has a very high quality."

Since January 2004, the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has cited King/Drew for numerous lapses in care that have injured or killed patients. The county Department of Health Services is set to release its recommendations Tuesday.

Officials have indicated that the two main options are handing King/Drew's operations to another county facility or finding a private operator. Negotiations with a private company could be impractical, however, given the tight time frame, county officials have said. Federal regulators, who have said King/Drew must make major changes before receiving U.S. funding again, have not commented on the Harbor plan. King/Drew collects about $200 million annually - about half its budget - for treating Medicare and Medi-Cal patients.

Harbor-UCLA officials, who must follow the direction of the Board of Supervisors, declined to comment Thursday. Sandra Shewry, director of the California Department of Health Services, said the state would assist the county once it chooses a plan to save King/Drew. At a bill signing in Pasadena, Schwarzenegger said it was important to keep the hospital open. "They have great challenges, but we are going to do everything we can to provide help and assistance," he said.

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MORE SEMI-PRIVATIZATION OF THE NHS

It's their only remaining option

A struggling NHS hospital is on the verge of being taken over by a foundation trust. Heart of England, a much-vaunted foundation trust in Birmingham, is poised to acquire the nearby Good Hope Hospital, which has been in dire financial straits. Good Hope would be formally dissolved and its assets, liabilities and staff taken over. Foundation trusts, unlike ordinary ones, are able to borrow, make surpluses and invest while also being at risk of going bust. In its first year of operation Good Hope made a 5 million pound surplus on a 280 million turnover.

According to the Financial Times, Heart of England will be guaranteed some business from the strategic health authority. The deal will not be finalised until it has been agreed how much of Good Hope's historic debt of 27 million can be written off or absorbed by the strategic health authority. Monitor, the foundation trust regulator, said: "This approach will not be suitable for every NHS hospital that gets into financial difficulties, because Good Hope can be made viable. But we expect there will be similar transactions, in perhaps double digits."

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For greatest efficiency, lowest cost and maximum choice, ALL hospitals and health insurance schemes should be privately owned and run -- with government-paid vouchers for the very poor and minimal regulation. Both Australia and Sweden have large private sector health systems with government reimbursement for privately-provided services so can a purely private system with some level of government reimbursement or insurance for the poor be so hard to do?

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