WBJ | $22 million pegged for a new D.C. hospital redirected

What are your thoughts? Should $300 million be invested in a new United Medical Center? Will a new hospital really make a difference or would it be more of the same? Would patients with private insurance (and options) really take advantage of a new hospital? Is a new United Medical Center likely to serve DC residents or Maryland residents?

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Excerpt:

The council’s health panel, chaired by Councilwoman Yvette Alexander, D-Ward 7, on Wednesday unanimously agreed to redirect $22 million of the $23.5 million that was dedicated in the fiscal 2015 capital budget to “new hospital development.” Most of it would be shifted to projects in Alexander’s home ward.  

According to the committee’s draft budget report, the subject of the committee markup Wednesday, the planning process for the new hospital has been a mess of conflicting answers, wrong answers, and a “lack of clarity and consistency.”

The answers received from both D.C. Healthcare Finance and existing United Medical Center leadership have "led me to believe that while a new hospital may be the route to take, this is not the way to get there,” Alexander said. 

With no confidence in the information provided, she said, the committee "cannot lend its support to the development of the new hospital.”