Safety

CA representative calls for continued funding of emergency mobile hospitals

Hospital Safety Connection, June 9, 2011

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California representative Bonnie Lowenthal (D-Long Beach), chair of the Assembly Transportation Committee and a member of the California Emergency Council, called for a return to funding for three emergency mobile hospital units in the Los Angeles Times.

In the midyear 2011-2012 budget cuts, legislators on both sides of the aisle agreed to strip the mobile hospitals of their maintenance funding, said Lowenthal. But stripping the hospitals—which were originally intended for the flu pandemic but could prove necessary in any emergency, including earthquakes—of maintenance could make them worthless, she added. The so-called “hospitals-in-a-box” can provide 30,000 square feet of hospital space and contain valuable medical equipment.

“Though it's an open question whether California can afford all the tools we'd like, before we waste our investment in the hospitals, we'd better take a very close look at how the cost-cutting of the recession has affected our disaster preparedness,” said Lowenthal. “It's not something you want to learn too late.”

Source: Los Angeles Times



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