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Hospital Plans Hit Obstacle On Council
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Williams's successful push to close D.C. General, the city's only public hospital, in 2001 created a firestorm of opposition in the neighborhoods east of the Anacostia River and among council members. Williams said the facility drained the city's treasury while providing poor medical care. Critics said the closure showed that Williams cared little for the city's poor and sick.
Council member Vincent C. Gray (D-Ward 7), one of the council's most vocal supporters of the hospital plan, said Cropp should have allowed the entire council to review the bills with committee action limited to comments.
"Given the complexity of the situation, the various pieces of the legislation should be kept intact,'' he said. "A lease over here, a grant over there, a certificate of need somewhere else; it doesn't seem very effective.''
Cropp said council rules required that the hospital go through the committee process. She did, however, send a memo to colleagues saying, "I encourage the coordination of the council's review of these measures, including, if possible, holding a joint hearing on these measures."
Meanwhile, Baskerville questioned the depth of the Williams administration's continuing commitment to the medical center. "I think the truth is, they're looking at the council to kill it." As for a Plan B if that happens, "there is none," she said.
Bobb said the mayor is firmly behind the plan, which includes a waiver of the certificate of need process.
The waiver has emerged as a key obstacle between the administration and the council. The District and 26 states mandate evaluations of major construction, expansion or modernization of medical facilities.
"Howard's decision to proceed," it noted, "will depend on the financial feasibility of the Project with the increased construction costs'' caused by any delays from the certificate of need process.
Bobb said the administration looks forward to making its case at the next hearing on the medical center, set for March 13.
