A source in Naval medicine tells Watching Washington political and economic pressures are keeping federal relief workers from fully utilizing the Navy's medical resources that responded to Hurricane Katrina.The source tells Watching Washington that civilian disaster relief officials are not fully utilizing the thousand-bed military hospital ship -- USNS Comfort -- already there. A second one, USNS Mercy (above) left San Diego for the gulf coast on September 8.
Our source tells us civilian authorities are keeping quiet about the ships to direct people to "for-profit" hospitals -- appeasing health care providers in the hurricane zone who may see the relief mission as competition.
He says most of the care the Navy's been providing has been dental care. But sick and injured who could be sent to military medical units are instead being diverted to private hospitals. Patients can then be charged for care while Navy ships sent there underutilized.
Even if unused, the ships still run up a bill for taxpayers. Hospital ships in particular are gennerally unmanned and not fully stocked until called for a specific mission.
Not the First Time
The Chicago Tribune reported early in the hurricane response how USS Bataan (right) rode out the storm and was waiting for immediate relief missions as soon as Katrina cleared.
Amphibious ships are designed as floating islands to support invasions. Because of that, they have extensive medical facilities to treat wounded troops. Bataan even has a pediatrician on board.
But FEMA didn't use the hospital facilities on the amphibious assault carrier. FEMA even waited more than four days to start bringing Bataan's doctors ashore.
In addition, the Navy dispatched two hospital ships, USNS Comfort and USNS Mercy, to provide care for sick and injured people that Katrina displaced. Comfort is at Pascagoula, Mercy is still underway. They are the only two hospital ships in the US Navy's fleet.
FEMA Ignores Military
Though four ships -- including USS Harry S Truman -- left the hurricane zone this week, FEMA is asking for additional military assistance. In addition to the 1,000 beds aboard both the Mercy and Comfort, the military currently provides a total of 789 hospital beds for the response:
- New Orleans International Airport -- 25 beds
- USS Bataan -- 360 beds
- USS Iwo Jima -- 105 beds
- USS Tortuga -- 35 beds
- 14th Combat Support Hospital -- 204 beds
- USS Shreveport -- 60 beds
But go to FEMA's website looking for medical help and you won't find any mention of these resources.A review of FEMA's website under "Medical, Social and Government Assistance" takes you to a link for "Health Services" at the Department of Health & Human Services. That link lists 195 hospitals in the storm recovery zone, but the military assistance centers aren't listed.
The health care industry contributed $73.79 million dollars to federal candidates in both major parties during the last election. (Watching Washington)
1 comment:
This is suppose to surprise us just how? The current administration is only interested in lining the pockets of their cronies. Look at the no-bid contracts and you can see. This is criminal and needs to stop.
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