Trauma Centers

With the closure of St. Joseph’s Hospital trauma center, public officials should now admit that the ill-conceived, expensive and overblown trauma system in Los Angeles is finished, kaput, no more.

Trauma systems in Los Angeles, San Diego and Orange counties have never been proven to improve patient survival. In the five years since the L.A. system began, mortality from motor vehicle accidents has not improved at all! How long will the taxpayers have to subsidize this white elephant which does us no good?

Emergency care at St. Joseph’s and in the rest of L.A. County will continue to be excellent without the dead weight of the trauma system. It will worsen if paramedics have to bypass good emergency hospitals to transport patients to trauma centers.

JOSEPH MORALES, M.D.

Pasadena