Hospital Emergency Rooms Are Unprepared for Terror Attack
May 6, 2008 by national
Filed under Homeland Security News
The nations emergency rooms and hospitals are still, nearly seven years after Sept. 11, not prepared to deal with the “surge” of patients that could be caused by a terror attack, according to a House oversight committee.
Whats worse is that its a situation that could be compounded, hospital officials from both coasts and a state disaster planner said today, if the Bush administration is able to take hundreds of millions in Medicaid funding from public and teaching hospitals.
Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., who chairs the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said the changes the Bush administration is trying to make in the way the government reimburses state and local governments for the services provided by public and teaching hospitals could be “disastrous” to the nations preparedness for a terror attack and called them an abdication of responsibility.
Waxmans oversight committee conducted a survey of 34 hospitals on March 25 and found that not one was prepared at that moment on that day for a terror attack.
“The situation in Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles was particularly dire.
our hospitals are at a major risk for a terror attack. there is little security measure taken when people enter to visit or make deliveries to patients. about two weeks ago a man left a bomb in a waiting room inside a new jersey hospital. this was not widely publicized and quieted stating that it was left by a disgruntled patient. anyone can go to the maternity ward (or any other department for that matter) during visiting hours with little to no inspection of gifts or bags brought onto the floors of the hospitals. if our emergency rooms are attacked, what then??? especially if coordinated with other major attacks in within the cities limits.
if our emergency rooms and medical staff are taken out, what then… so not only are these hospitals unprepared to handle a terror attack outside of its walls, they are GROSSLY unprepared to avoid one happening within them.