Panel Named to Study Hospital Alternatives

Fissures were already evident minutes after Williams announced the panel's members.

Panel member Sharon Baskerville of the D.C. Primary Care Association complained that the commission includes too many politicians and hospital industry officials.

"I'm disappointed,'' Baskerville said. "It is too weighted with what will be perceived as special interests.''

Although Williams said members would go into the process with open minds and make their decision based on data and research, Barry immediately offered his assessment.

"We are going to have a Level 1 trauma center east of the river -- unequivocally," Barry said.

Catania responded that it was "premature to say what facility will be built where.''

Williams first proposed the National Capital Medical Center to replace the shuttered D.C. General near RFK Stadium and to bring a top-flight hospital closer to residents east of the river. But in recent months, he had been wavering, in part because the project could undermine the only hospital east of the river, Greater Southeast Community, and there was significant council opposition to the new hospital.