In “Critics: Hospital not needed” concerning Lancaster General Hospital’s plans to build a major hospital within two miles of the Ephrata Hospital, it is pointed out that “LGH’s countywide study shows that the county will need an additional 100 hospital beds in the next 25 years.” LGH vice president, Jan Bergen, states “If we focused on the city, we would be the size of Heart of Lancaster, but a county this size should have specialized services and a hospital that is stable and secure for the future.”
WATCHDOG: Two wags of the tail for a well researched and balanced article.
Apparently Bergen is referring to the City proper with its 55,000 population rather than the quarter of a million or more comprising city and suburbs. In that context, the statement is disingenuous.
With both Regional Hospital and Heart of Lancaster suffering from empty beds and unused facilities, why doesn’t LGH work out relationships with them to provide for “specialized services”, perhaps even purchase them? Why spend five times as much on a new hospital which potentially could drain away LGH’s huge current profits? Is this planning for the future or self-aggrandizement?
Wouldn’t Lancastrians be better served if LGH spent the huge profits (well in excess of a hundred million dollars a year) on the real and current vital needs of the community?
Since LGH is a foundation and its profits from market dominance come from its clients, will its owners—the public—have any say in making this decision?
Every time local leaders come up with grandiose ideas on how to spend the rare public surplus, it ends in poor results. Two examples: (1) Lancaster Square which, apart from the parking garage, sits virtually vacant with the future of the closed Brunswick very much in doubt. (2) The Convention Center project, which has impoverished the City by consuming tens of millions of dollars that could have gone to better uses, such as the renovation and expansion of the public library, neighborhood improvements (instead of just downtown), and enhanced education for children.
Will an unneeded new hospital in the Ephreta area be the next?
