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Compromises to Save Trauma Center Devised

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Times Staff Writers

On the eve of an expected vote by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to close the trauma center at Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center, opponents of the closure plan were writing last-minute compromise proposals Monday.

Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke said she had been meeting with U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) and union officials to write a motion that would examine the future of trauma services at the hospital and suggest an alternative that would maintain services. Burke said Monday evening that the language had not yet been worked out.

Los Angeles City Councilman Martin Ludlow said he planned to fax his plan to the five county supervisors late Monday. Ludlow’s plan calls on the county’s Department of Health Services to hire 24 to 36 critical care nurses immediately and reduce King/Drew’s trauma load by one-third.

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To support and reopen key training programs, such as the surgical residency program that ended in July, Ludlow said, he wanted to bring UCLA into Drew University to “co-pilot” the programs.

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