Cartoon Unfair to Hospital, USC

As a physician who trained at L.A. County-USC Medical Center and as a member of the voluntary attending staff, I read with mixed emotions “Delays Put Lives at Risk at County-USC” (June 26) and viewed with some dismay the June 28 editorial cartoon by Michael Ramirez. The article looked at many of the issues confronting the hospital. The cartoon (showing a hearse with the name L.A. County-USC Medical Center) served only to pander to sensationalism.

County-USC has been a lifesaving institution for tens of thousands of people in Los Angeles. For decades it has been consistently and significantly underfunded. It has been placed in a political context when it should have been exempted. Los Angeles has the highest percentage of uninsured in the country. Its county hospital serves not only this population but is the major trauma center in L.A. County. Any of us could be taken there in an emergency. The physicians and nurses who serve there work against innumerable odds. We must demand that our county hospital be adequately funded, adequately staffed and be of sufficient size to meet the health care needs of the patient population it serves. The medical staff and patients of L.A. County-USC Medical Center deserve no less.

Ilena J. Blicker MD

President, Los Angeles

County Medical Assn.

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The Ramirez cartoon confuses and contradicts your story describing serious staffing and service issues at County-USC. The story chronicled tragic problems caused by a shortage of finances, nurses and other support. It also described the attempts of University of Southern California physicians and USC officials to work with L.A. County administrators to remedy the problems. The cartoon turns this upside down and attempts to blame USC for these problems. USC neither owns nor operates the medical center; rather, USC only provides physician services at the center under contract to the county.

The USC physicians at County-USC and the county health care professionals who support them care for patients in an obsolete facility under extremely difficult conditions. The good work of The Times’ reporters over the years in chronicling the life-saving roles of these professionals at County-USC is undercut by a shabby and inaccurate attempt at finding humor where none exists.

Steven B. Sample

President, USC

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I could barely contain my anger at a June 30 letter. When people are sick, then they are sick. Period. It does not matter where they came from, who they are or where they live. It is time to wake up to the realities of our multicultural world and get off the “illegal alien” soapbox. The last thing a hospital and a patient need is to be required to check who is legally in this country. It does not matter. People, when sick, are afraid enough. Luckily the system, even with its faults, is bigger and better than the opinions expressed in this letter.

Gregory Morales MD

Los Angeles