The possible elimination of King/Drew Medical Center's trauma services by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors is not in the interest of the hospital or the Watts/Willowbrook community it serves. Without increased resources to the hospital, the closure of the trauma center will not simply translate into meaningful improvement or expansion of more basic medical services at King/Drew.
In addition, the community's trauma victims will face prolonged transport times to care, and the entire county trauma network will be enormously strained. This will result in increased deaths, diminished quality of life and lost livelihoods as the quality of trauma care in the whole county suffers.
The Watts/Willowbrook community, beset by grinding poverty and violent crime, and arguably one of the most medically and socially underserved in the county, will be left with a still struggling public hospital without a trauma center.
It is the board's responsibility to work to ensure safe, effective and accessible healthcare, not to dismantle our systems for providing that care piece by piece in our communities that need it most. We must not be duped by the board's specious logic; this is an utterly bankrupt public policy that serves neither King/Drew nor the public good.
