[StBernard] Lack of Health Care in New Orleans Contributes to Higher Death Rate

[Westley Annis]

Lack of Health Care in New Orleans Contributes to Higher Death Rate
 

By Paul Kita

(AXcess News) Washington - More than a year and a half after Hurricane
Katrina made landfall, officials said Tuesday that the hospital system in
New Orleans remains fractured, inefficient and chronically underfunded.

"I fear that we are on the verge of turning the nation's largest natural
disaster into the nation's largest manmade disaster," said Rep. John
Dingell, D-Mich., at a U.S. House of Representatives Oversight and
Investigations Subcommittee hearing on public health conditions in New
Orleans.

Since the hurricane landed Aug. 29, 2005, the number of deaths in New
Orleans has risen markedly, witnesses said, even though fewer people live
there.

Dr. Kevin Stephens Sr., director of the New Orleans Health Department, said
he calculated the city's higher death rate by counting death notices
published in local newspapers. In 2003, there were an average of 294 per
month. But for the first six months of 2006, the average rose to 1,317.

"This means that approximately 7,902 citizens expired in the first six
months of 2006, as compared to approximately 5,544 in the first six months
in 2003," he said.

Health care representatives said New Orleans is struggling to entice both
primary health care providers and specialists back into the city - a
difficult task without proper health facilities or adequate federal funding.

Ninety percent of those employed at the city's two major hospitals lost
their jobs in the disaster, said Cathi Fontenot, medical director of the
Medical Center of Louisiana at New Orleans. The void that followed has
people looking for new doctors and has left others who have manageable
diseases undiagnosed.

What was once a patient with treatable high blood pressure, is now a patient
with a heart attack, said Thomas Koehl, director of Operation Blessing
Disaster Relief Medical Center.

Those requiring specialized medical treatment, such as chemotherapy or
dialysis, are often forced to drive as far as 60 miles to receive care,
Fontenot said. In addition, people are waiting in line for up to eight hours
for something as basic as a pair of glasses.

The "emotional fatigue" of Hurricane Katrina's aftermath can amplify
complications for people suffering from health problems, said Dr. Bryan
Bertucci, family physician and coroner of St. Bernard Parish in Chalmette,
La.

"They can't handle it anymore," Bertucci said.

New Orleans' cornerstone hospital, known as Big Charity, remains closed -
its 700 beds gone. City residents, many of them uninsured, must now seek
care through referral clinics or at health care facilities run from tents or
trailers.

Bertucci said the St. Bernard private practice, which once operated out of a
150-physician hospital, now sees its patients in trailers. The hospital has
six physicians.

Those testifying at the hearing said additional federal funds will help
rebuild hospitals, encouraging primary health care physicians to return to
New Orleans. To prevent another catastrophe from destroying the health care
system, several officials said, federal and state governments should
construct a safety net that would provide basic health services during
emergencies.

Several members of Congress and health care officials said levels of
government differ in how to distribute the responsibilities, ultimately
delaying action.

"Instead of breaking off pieces of a complex health care system and forging
ahead with ways to solve each piece, I fear that the state and federal
government will become locked into a colossal fight of dueling spreadsheets
and armies of actuaries," said Rep, Bart Stupak, D-Mich., the subcommittee
chair.

Source: Scripps Howard Foundation Wire