USNS Comfort asked to take on New Orleans Charity Hospital work

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Officials of Louisiana State University health care system asked the federal government Tuesday for mobile military medical units to provide health care for the poor in hurricane devastated parts of the state until new hospitals can be built in New Orleans and Baton Rouge.

In meetings with Bush administration officials and Louisiana lawmakers, the LSU officials asked that the Pentagon provide the USS Comfort, a Navy hospital ship, to serve as an immediate, temporary replacement for Charity Hospital, the primary health care facility for New Orleans' indigent population.

Dwayne Thomas, chief executive officer of Charity, said the officials also asked for portable military medical field hospitals that could be brought in once the Comfort leaves to provide health care for the city's poor until space can be leased elsewhere or a new hospital is built.

(Hat tip: NOSI).