Posted on 09/04/2005 6:02:38 PM PDT by wjersey
BATON ROUGE, Louisiana (AP) -- Volunteer physicians are pouring in to care for the sick, but red tape is keeping hundreds of others from caring for Hurricane Katrina survivors while health problems rise.
Among the doctors stymied from helping out are 100 surgeons and paramedics in a state-of-the-art mobile hospital, developed with millions of tax dollars for just such emergencies, marooned in rural Mississippi.
"The bell was rung, the e-mails were sent off. ...We all got off work and deployed," said one of the frustrated surgeons, Dr. Preston "Chip" Rich of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
"We have tried so hard to do the right thing. It took us 30 hours to get here," he said. That government officials can't straighten out the mess and get them assigned to a relief effort now that they're just a few miles away "is just mind-boggling," he said.
While the doctors wait, the first signs of disease began to emerge Saturday: A Mississippi shelter was closed after 20 residents got sick with dysentery, probably from drinking contaminated water.
Many other storm survivors were being treated in the Houston Astrodome and other shelters for an assortment of problems, including chronic health conditions left untreated because people had lost or used up their medicine.
The North Carolina mobile hospital stranded in Mississippi was developed through the Office of Homeland Security after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. With capacity for 113 beds, it is designed to handle disasters and mass casualties.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
check out the genral talking to Geraldo now!
BullSh!t... there's PLENTY of people need their help EVERYWHERE...
THEY just WANT to go to NewOrleans!!!
What government agency is holding them and why.....Local, State, Feds?
Who stopped these docs and why?
Didn't they already announce something similar to that? I remember something about they had to be licnesed/certified, etc., but can't remember if it was said they had to be licensed in LA. I'm sure it's the governor there who is creating all the problems. If ever there was an incompetent holding office, she is it. She acts like she has absolutely NO clue, as to what she's doing or supposed to be doing. They wanted a dem governor so bad that they'd vote anyone in, other than a republican, so now they're paying a deadly price for being die hard democrats.
I think the La. governor and the NO mayor showed complete incompetence in this entire situation. I saw Gov. Blanco the day after the storm and the woman could hardly even speak coherently. But all of this is Bush's fault!
Another interesting thing I just heard on CNN is that Blanco refused to allow the La. Natl. Guard to be federalized despite strong insistance from Bush. That explains their delay in deployment.
Red tape and paper work in medicine is why many physicians are now retiring early.
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