|
L.B.
residents: stop taking hospitals for granted
Welcome
to Long Beach, a city with a population
of about 480,000. This wonderful city also
has numerous colleges, a great diversity
of arts and 13 hospitals. Only 13 hospitals
for a population of 480,000. Wow, hold that
thought.
I
came to Long Beach from my hometown of Lancaster.
For the many of you who don't have a clue
where Lancaster is, think of that turn-off
sign prior to Magic Mountain, or maybe you
passed through it while speeding on your
drive towards good ol' Vegas.
It
is a drier desert area about a 90-minute
drive from Cal State Long Beach. The city
is still within Los Angeles County and is
more collectively known as the Antelope
Valley (AV), which is comprised of Lancaster,
Palmdale and other smaller towns such as
Quartz Hill, Acton and Rosamond, to name
a few.
In
the AV, there are only two hospitals for
about 400,000 people. Dang, or as my friend
would say, "that sucks."
While
the AV continues to be one of the fastest
growing areas in California, the healthcare
system has been stagnant. There used to
be three hospitals —all of them in
Lancaster — for years. Los Angeles
County operated High Desert Hospital before
closing it down due to budget cuts after
being forced to stay open by lawsuits due
to a "medical emergency" in the
area associated with its possible closure.
About
25 years ago, when the area population was
maybe 100,000 and phone numbers were only
five digits long instead of seven, there
were three hospitals. Five years ago, there
were still three hospitals. And now with
400,000 people and a growing population,
there are only two hospitals. That is just
crap. Less than 500 beds are available for
that size of a population. That's dangerous.
So where are Los Angeles County and our
golden state when you need them? Oh yeah,
they are worried about their own budgets.
With
both hospitals running at near capacity
and a wait to get a room that is extremely
long, to put it nicely, more hospitals are
urgently needed in the area. On average
it takes 15 minutes just to get to the hospital.
This greatly reduces the chance of survival
for your father's heart attack or your child's
life threatening trauma. If the trauma is
too much for the basic emergency care available,
your loved one would have to be taken to
the nearest trauma center. Again, since
there are no trauma centers in the area,
this makes for one extremely long 45 minute
helicopter ride to Valencia while your loved
one is barely hanging on to his or her life.
What
will it take until new facilities are built?
How much will low- and middle-income families
have to put up with until it is found beneficial
enough in the eyes of bureaucrats to begin
construction on at least a couple more hospitals
in the area?
Well,
rumor has it that the Pennsylvania-based
company Universal Health Services, which
runs one hospital in Lancaster, is planning
a 250-bed facility in Palmdale. At least
someone recognizes the need for health care
facilities, even if they make a for-profit
business out of it. Ideally, 10 years from
now, we will have 13 hospitals for a sizable
population, but don't count on it. This
just goes to show us, we shouldn't take
the basic things for granted.
Chris
Lanski is a kinesiology major at CSULB.
|
