I have been a fixture in a lot of health care diaries. It's one of my pet causes, it's just about an obsession for me since I don't have health insurance.
As we wait for Gustavo to make its move on the Gulf, with its trajectory very scarily looking like the one of Katrina almost exactly three years ago...
...it bears repeating that NOLA is still wounded, with no healing in sight.
More over the flip.
Those heroes of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee visited NOLA recently and videotaped what they saw. It's absolutely worth a look.
(Actually, I'd love it if they'd also post the video HERE, at the Healthcare Vimeo Group that I started. Vimeo is a superior service with better quality and a pro-First Amendment stance that puts YouTube to shame.)
As Gustavo menaces the Gulf, it is shocking but true that Charity Hospital, the big county-run hospital in NOLA, is not up and running even now. Why is this so? Why the hell wasn't getting Charity up and running a first, rather than last priority?
The video will make you angry. It will make you cry. Think good thoughts for the Gulf Coast, folks. Or pray, if you are the praying sort. Because if Gustavo hits the same way Katrina did three years ago, we are looking at yet another horrible tragedy.
Oh yeah: support the clinics which are desperately trying to keep people healthy in the absence of large infrastructure like Charity Hospital.
And folks: if you live in the line of fire...don't wait. Get the hell out of there. Please.