Long Beach : Council Moves to Avert Closure of Trauma Center
The City Council, concerned that one of the city’s two trauma centers may close, thereby jeopardizing emergency treatment of Long Beach residents, is preparing a resolution calling on Gov. George Deukmejian and the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to help preserve adequate trauma care in Long Beach.
It also is directing city management to meet with the administrators of the hospitals that operate the local trauma centers.
Citing the same kind of financial pressures that have closed other trauma centers in the county and created a crisis in emergency medical care, administrators of Memorial Medical Center said they may shut their trauma unit. That would send more emergency patients to St. Mary Medical Center than that hospital could handle, perhaps jeopardizing their trauma unit as well, health officials warn.
A steady stream of poor, uninsured patients unable to pay their bills has created financial problems for trauma centers throughout the county and in response many of them are shutting down.
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