Brad Ott, spokesman for the Committee to Reopen Charity Hospital, stands outside the now shut-down publicly run facility his group is trying to revive. Peggy Bickhim, left, enraged by the injustices in post-Katrina, has put her anger to good work by joining ACORN in the fight to fix the New Orleans health care catastrophe. Gwen Adams, right, an uninsured, out-of-work teacher, is also working with ACORN.

by Sally Meckling, photos by Deirdre Wedig

OCSEA Public Employee Quarterly

With scores of community groups and political leaders in favor of its continuing, why is it taking so long to reopen New Orleans’ Charity Hospital? Those waiting patiently for a rebirth include not only members of the Louisiana State Legislature, the New Orleans city council and the New Orleans police department, but former Charity Hospital physicians, nurses, labor groups, District Court judges, the People’s Hurricane Relief Fund, ACORN, church groups, Total Community Action and many others.

So what’s the hold up?

A spokesperson for the Committee to Reopen Charity Hospital, the group at the forefront of bringing the hospital back to life, says the story of the Louisiana-run Charity Hospital is a microcosm of what’s happened throughout the city post-Katrina.

“Basically, you have the state and other government entities getting out of the business of delivering any public services,” said Brad Ott, a seasoned local advocate and former patient of the hospital.

Indeed, virtually the entire system of public services in New Orleans has closed for business while private contractors stealthily moved in during the weeks and months after Katrina. Public schools shuttered, waste removal was handed over to privateers, public housing became co-opted, security forces transferred to for-profit companies and Charity Hospital closed, turning its back on nearly a million ailing people per year who received services there .

The Charity Hospital System is one of the largest public health systems in the country and, before the storm, comprised 11 hospitals throughout Louisiana. Built in 1939, the 74-year-old Charity Hospital located near Louisiana State University and Tulane University, is one of the last public hospitals of the New Deal Era.

Ott’s group is demanding an interim solution to deal with the crisis caused by the hospital’s closing, including a full inspection of the facility to assure its soundness and a reinstatement of some of its services. “This is about a facility that can serve the public now and has a psychiatric unit desperately needed by the people,” said Ott.

Private health care companies, taking advantage of the weakening public system and the closing of the public hospital, are offering limited health clinic services in some parish communities.

But a new study that indicates as many as 60 percent of New Orleans residents between the ages of 18 and 44 have no health insurance, proves that a broader, more systemic plan for health care is needed.

Ironically, Karen Chabert, a former RN at Charity, who is also working to restore the hospital, is now one of the uninsured she used to take care of. “As a result of not working here, I’m an uninsured person now. It helps to see the other side of things.”

It’s also become painfully obvious to residents like Peggy Bickhim that New Orleans has no broader system to deal with the tens of thousands of city residents with no health insurance.

“You can build a hospital for the SPCA, but not for people. Dogs and cats can get evacuated, but we can’t. We’re treated like we are nothing. We don’t exist,” Bickhim said.

Bickhim, chairperson of ACORN New Orleans East, is helping with an effort to open up parts of Methodist Hospital to serve Katrina victims without insurance.

Gwen Adams, also of ACORN, is a former teacher who was dismissed from her job, along with 3,000 other public educators. She also has no health care. “People who lost jobs, lost their health care,” said Adams. “Most of New Orleans do not have jobs, do not have housing and do not have health care.”

Jiselle Bock was involved in the early days after the storm trying to collect data on who was and wasn’t accessing health care. Bock, currently Executive Director of Luke’s House, a Methodist affiliated health center due to open in November, says that what is needed is a comprehensive system of health care. “Opening Charity Hospital is not the only answer for the uninsured, the underinsured and the undocumented. We need primary care services before you need to go to the hospital.”

While there has been no agreement by the state or city council on reopening either Charity or the Methodist Hospital, Ott believes they’ve reached a crunch point. “Something is going to have to be done, even if we have to seek a legal option.”

Standing outside the vacant Charity Hospital building, nurse Chabert sees some of her former colleagues who work in the LSU hospital system now. “I’m saddened,” she says tearing up. “My heart is here.”