Barry, Catania Drop Support For Hospital

Two key council members joined Mayor Anthony A. Williams in declaring their support yesterday for the recommendations of a D.C. health task force to abandon plans for a 250-bed hospital on the eastern side of the city.

Council members Marion Barry (D-Ward 8) and David A. Catania (I-At Large), who once backed the new hospital construction, said they now favor the establishment of three primary health clinics and renovations at Greater Southeast Community Hospital.

Williams (D), Barry and Catania were joined at the mayor's weekly press briefing by members of the task force. The group issued recommendations in a 10 to 5 vote and released a report this week outlining the new option.

"I embrace wholeheartedly the recommendations of this report," Williams said, adding that he wanted to counter comments made by four dissenting task force members on Tuesday.

The dissenters held a news conference to promote the proposed National Capital Medical Center, a joint venture of the city and Howard University. They argued that the task force majority had ignored overcrowding in local hospital emergency rooms. They said the problem would be alleviated by building the new hospital, planned at the site of the former D.C. General Hospital at 19th Street and Massachusetts Avenue SE.

The decision by Barry and Catania to switch their positions could make it difficult to get the entire D.C. Council to back a new hospital, said Vanessa Dixon, a community health advocate and dissenter on the task force.

Barry, whose ward would be greatly affected by any decision, still holds influence on the council, and Catania chairs the health committee, which will be reviewing the recommendations.

"We, of course, are going to go for more council support. They [Barry and Catania] have staked out a position and we disagree," Dixon said.

Barry said his initial stance was based on his concern about residents in Southeast, which has the highest rates of several diseases, including prostate cancer and HIV-AIDS.

"It wasn't about a [medical] center. It was about a glimmer of hope for health care east of the river," he said, referring to communities east of the Anacostia River.

Catania said he had switched after reevaluating the plan. He said he thought some of the $212 million available to the city for hospital construction could be better used for improving Greater Southeast, assuming the financially troubled facility gets a new owner.

"We simply took a page out of our past and said that because the hospital was once there, there should be another one," Catania said in an interview. "I was an absolute stalwart supporter of the hospital. . . . To be honest, I'll speak for myself, it was not completely thought out."

It was unclear yesterday where many council members stand on the issue. Catania said he had not talked to his colleagues about their positions on the issue.

"Other members are going to weigh in and will have their point of view," Catania said. "All of this is on the table, but there are no plans."

Council members Phil Mendelson (D-At Large) and Jim Graham (D-Ward 1), who supports a hospital as long as Howard University Hospital on Georgia Avenue remains open, joined the dissenters at the Tuesday news conference.

Council member Vincent C. Gray (D-Ward 7), has used the hospital as a campaign issue and said he continues to favor building a new hospital despite the waning support.

Gray, however, said he wanted to study the task force's final report, as did Council Chairman Linda W. Cropp (D). "It would be hard for me to say until I read the recommendations. I want to make sure that Ward 7 and 8 residents get some strong acute care," she said.

Adrian M. Fenty (D-Ward 4), who is running for mayor against Cropp, had no immediate comment yesterday on the issue. Gray is running for the chairman's seat to replace Cropp.