Hospital’s Decision to Turn Away Pregnant Women

I believe that I have a possible solution for UCI Medical Center’s Medi-Cal woes. The medical center should give the hospital in Orange back to the county. Perhaps then UCI Medical Center could negotiate with the AMI Corp. to purchase the hospital AMI is building in Irvine.

According to Dr. Walter Henry, vice chancellor and dean of UCI Medical School, who wants to close the doors of the hospital if they are continually inundated with Medi-Cal patients, “UCI’s primary functions are to serve as a research and teaching hospital.” Therefore, it would indeed serve UCI Medical Center best to have its hospital in Irvine--if not on campus, then near the campus, where the AMI hospital is being built.

I find it very difficult to believe that Orange County cannot support a county hospital for indigents and working people who do not have insurance. Los Angeles supports three county hospitals and several clinics.

Orange County should not be content with only offering clinics for the indigent to be treated. Medical Center officials only promise that pregnant mothers who were seen in their clinics will be delivered at their hospital. If a mother has been treated in a county prenatal clinic and comes to UCI Medical Center in labor, she may be met by a security guard with directions to another hospital. Why is the county tolerating this action?

The county has a legal and moral obligation to take care of its indigents’ health care.

Orange County officials would find the UCI Medical Center a real bargain to repurchase. Since UCI acquired the hospital located in Orange, new buildings have been built and millions of dollars spent by UCI to renovate and replace old diagnostic equipment with state of the art equipment.

If Dr. Walter Henry with his new-found power wishes to shut the doors of the medical center to Medi-Cal patients, then they should be shut to everyone at the Orange location. The county could then reopen the doors to the hospital and render health care to people it was originally built to serve: the residents of Orange County who had no private insurance.

Please, Orange County, take back your hospital so all county residents may receive appropriate medical treatment without discrimination of race, creed, color, or funds.

CAROL L. PINKERTON

Irvine