[StBernard] EDITORIAL: Teamwork on hospital

[Westley Annis]

EDITORIAL: Teamwork on hospital

Periodically, the press office will publish editorials and columns that feature Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco's work in various areas. 

Times-PIcayune: Teamwork on hospital
Published: July 31, 2007
View the article online <http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/editorials/index.ssf?/base/news-4/1185862710302840.xml&coll=1> 

A new veterans hospital in downtown New Orleans will help patients as well as the city, and state and city leaders are trying to make that clear to the head of veterans affairs. 

Gov. Kathleen Blanco, Mayor Ray Nagin, legislators and university officials are among the 19 people who signed a letter to Veterans Affairs Secretary James Nicholson urging a downtown location. 

A VA hospital that could share laundry and laboratory space with Louisiana State University's new hospital was proposed soon after Katrina, but in recent months the VA has been exploring other locations. 

The federal government shouldn't disinvest in New Orleans as the city struggles to recover from the storm, but the letter writers offer other strong reasons to keep the VA downtown. 

The hospital would be part of a medical district that includes two medical schools -- Tulane's and LSU's. Veterans would have access to doctors at those schools, the letter points out. The letter writers also argue that the location will save money, and it will help drive a biosciences research corridor the universities are working to develop. 

This effort marks the first time that the state, the city and the universities, as well as the American Legion, have joined forces to push the downtown site. Clearly the leaders of this region see this project as critical, and that ought to be persuasive, too.

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The Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation
Louisiana's Fund for Louisiana's People
www.louisianahelp.org