XPost: talk.politics.medicine, talk.politics.guns, sac.politics   
   XPost: alt.home.repair   
   From: job_killers@dsausa.org   
      
   Vulnerable patients and community health advocates are calling on   
   California’s top cop to stop a private health corporation from cutting   
   one of Santa Clara County’s only trauma centers.   
      
   The financially-driven closure of Regional Medical Center’s life-saving   
   services in East San Jose is discriminatory, argues a letter sent   
   Thursday to Attorney General Rob Bonta, since it mostly endangers poor   
   people of color who would either have to wait to be transferred   
   elsewhere or drive half an hour to the next closest trauma unit.   
   Regional, owned by HCA Healthcare, also plans to close its heart attack   
   center and reduce stroke care. The stroke center serves 65% of the   
   county’s uninsured stroke patients, according to county data.   
      
   “Inevitably, the proposed closures at Regional Medical Center will   
   result in a decrease in health center access and in an increase in   
   adverse outcomes and deaths — predominantly affecting the working poor   
   and communities of color — a population that already experiences   
   challenges in accessing even the most basic care,” reads a letter to   
   Bonta signed by the leaders of community groups Latinas Contra Cancer   
   and Working Partnerships USA.   
      
   Regional Medical Center spokesperson Jack Finn said HCA is shifting its   
   priorities to the hospital’s emergency department as demand grows by an   
   average of 225 patients daily. He said HCA has invested as much as $196   
   million to increase the emergency department’s capacity from 43 to 63 beds.   
      
   “Regional Medical Center is disappointed by the actions of certain   
   officials and activists,” Finn told San José Spotlight. “Our dedicated   
   physicians, nurses and staff remain undaunted in their mission to   
   provide high-quality, compassionate care to our patients.”   
      
   A chorus of top county leaders have warned that Regional’s service cuts   
   — set to take effect on Aug. 12 — could plunge the entire county   
   hospital system into chaos. Health and emergency response officials are   
   scrambling to prepare for the resulting deluge of new patients on the   
   county-run Valley Medical Center’s remaining and already-overburdened   
   trauma unit. Regional will also be calling more ambulances to transfer   
   out the patients that can no longer get services there – causing deadly   
   ambulance slowdowns across the entire region, emergency medical   
   officials have warned.   
      
   “I am a single mom of two young children,” East San Jose resident   
   Jessica Diangson told San José Spotlight. “I can only imagine if one of   
   them had to be rushed there, but there was nothing there to help them. I   
   don’t even want to think about it.”   
      
    From the heart of the East Side, it can take up to 30 or 45 minutes to   
   get to Valley Medical Center or Kaiser Permanente, Diangson said.   
      
   “That time could mean someone’s life, and that someone could be the   
   family provider, and what the family is left with are all these   
   hardships that didn’t have to happen,” Diangson told San José Spotlight.   
      
   County officials say the California Department of Public Health has the   
   authority to stop HCA’s decision if it determines action is warranted to   
   avoid public harm, though the state has historically refused to   
   intervene on hospital decisions.   
      
   Community leaders are now turning to the state attorney general for help.   
      
   “I’m proud to stand firm in our request for Attorney General Rob Bonta   
   to launch a full investigation into the recently announced closure of   
   trauma and STEMI services and downgrade comprehensive stroke services at   
   Regional Medical Center,” East San Jose Councilmember Peter Ortiz told   
   San José Spotlight . “I am confident that with the support of the   
   Attorney General, and our community, we will succeed in stopping this   
   proposed reduction.”   
      
   Advocates who organized a Friday news conference argue the North   
   Carolina Attorney General took similar action against HCA Healthcare in   
   2023 over severe service cuts to a local nonprofit hospital HCA acquired   
   – forcing patients in Western North Carolina to travel further distances   
   for care. Regional Medical Center was also run by a nonprofit before   
   being acquired by HCA in 1998.   
      
   “This is what profit in health care does,” Darcie Green, executive   
   director of Latinas Contra Cancer, told San José Spotlight. “This is one   
   more hurdle they’re throwing at patients.”   
      
   Green said it isn’t the first time the county hospital system has had to   
   absorb the shockwave of HCA’s service cuts at Regional.   
      
   In 2020, Regional’s closure of its labor and delivery unit forced East   
   San Jose residents to travel further to hospitals while in labor.   
      
   “We know there will be people who have to wait those extra minutes to   
   get to a different center which could mean loss of life, permanent   
   disability and that all has a human cost, a mental cost, a financial   
   cost,” Green said. “Who picks up all that?”   
      
   Contact Brandon Pho at brandon@sanjosespotlight.com or @brandonphooo on   
   X, formerly known as Twitter.   
      
   https://sanjosespotlight.com/state-ag-california-attorney-genera   
   -asked-to-intervene-in-east-san-jose-hospital-trauma-center-closure/   
      
   Democrat COVID policies and Biden illegal aliens cost money.  Now   
   Democrats are bitching about it and failing to place blame in the   
   correct places as usual.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)