UPCOUNTY

NEEDS BOTH

NEW HOSPITALS

Last week, a driver crashed into a utility pole in Mount Airy. He was rushed to... Washington County Hospital in Hagerstown!

This is further evidence of the current void in emergency medical services in the Upcounty. I suspect that the driver was taken to the Trauma Center in Washington County, as has been the case in other serious accidents. Frederick Memorial Hospital does not have equivalent facilities. Of course, Mt. Airy is in Carroll County, but it is right next to Damascus. So if Washington County was the closest trauma center in that case, where would a similar patient in Damascus or Clarksburg be transported?

The good news is, we finally have two organizations proposing to build hospitals in upper Montgomery County: Adventist (Germantown) and Holy Cross (Clarksburg).

The bad news is, Big Government and political payoffs are getting in the way. Maryland officials are seeking to have only one facility built. Big Government, in all of its convoluted regulatory madness, has invented some kind of "certificate of need" process. This is designed to award potential hospitals to the organizations and developers who donate the most money to Gov. O'Malley and elected officials further down the chain of power.

We can't let politics get in the way of public safety in the Upcounty.

Both hospitals need to be built, and I would insist on two assurances: that we are getting a net gain in beds within Montgomery County (we currently have a critical lack of hospital beds, and are totally unprepared for a major disease outbreak or terror attack), and that one of these hospitals will (eventually) have a Trauma Center.

Having both hospitals and a trauma center is literally a matter of life and death for future patients in the Upcounty, as well as in southern Frederick and Carroll counties.