> Protesters demand St. Mary's doors remain open
>
> By George Bennett, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
> Friday, June 9, 2000
>
> PALM BEACH -- Past the trendy bistros and high-end
> jewelry boutiques marched a stream of Guatemalan
> laborers, children and other placard-carrying protesters
> Thursday in a rally against plans to close St. Mary's Medical
> Center.
>
> The roughly 300 demonstrators -- including a large
> contingent organized by the Guatemalan-Maya Center of
> Lake Worth -- marched from a public health facility in West
> Palm Beach to the ornate St. Edward's Roman Catholic
> Church in Palm Beach to show their support for St. Mary's,
> which traditionally has been the hospital for the area's poor
> and uninsured.
>
> A plan by a consultant to Intracoastal Health Systems would
> close St. Mary's and consolidate it with Good Samaritan
> Medical Center, the West Palm Beach facility that has
> traditionally been the hospital of choice for Palm Beachers.
> The plan would reduce the number of licensed hospital
> beds at the two hospitals from 801 (of which 544 are
> currently in use) to 429, leading to concerns that the poor
> would be squeezed out.
>
> "I just worry a little bit. What are we going to do?" asked
> Mara Martinez of Lake Worth. She said her daughter was
> turned away by Good Samaritan about two years ago
> because she did not have health insurance at the time. St.
> Mary's accepted her, Martinez said.
>
> "St. Mary's is a big temple of hope," said Poli Gaspar. "They
> never let us down. They never said `You are no one.' "
>
> The proposed consolidation would leave the new entity under the control of
> a Catholic organization with a commitment to serve the poor. That's "good
> news," said Bishop Anthony O'Connell of the Catholic Diocese of Palm Beach,
> who spoke to the crowd at St. Edward's. But O'Connell also challenged the
> government of Palm Beach County to do more.
>
> "St. Mary's has traditionally provided the majority of charity health care
> in the county. Now the question needs to be asked whether the county is
> paying its fair share of the costs so incurred," O'Connell said.
>
> O'Connell said many questions about the hospital plan remain unanswered,
> but he was satisfied "the poor will continue to be served with quality
> health care."
>
> But the Rev. Frank O'Loughlin of the Guatemalan-Maya Center remain skeptical.
>
> "We're going to have health care rationing. We're going to go from 800 beds
> to 400," O'Loughlin said. Noting the fashion preference of some wealthy
> people to wear loafers without socks, O'Loughlin added, "Who's going to get
> the health care -- the people without the socks or the people without the
> shirts?"
>
> george_bennett at pbpost.com