PRESS RELEASE
Executive Intelligence Review News Service
317 Pennsylvania Ave. SE, Washington, D.C. 20003
For more information, contact Lynne Speed at
202-544-7087.
Aliquippa Community Hospital Rejects Takeover by DCHC
April 9, 2001 (EIRNS)--On April 6, the Board of Aliquippa Community Hospital, located in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, voted unanimously to cancel their proposed agreement with Doctors Community Healthcare Corporation (DCHC), which would have allowed DCHC to take over management of the hospital as of April 17. The local board will now restore the hospital as a full service facility under the management and direction of the community itself. DCHC is the same outfit, which in the last two years took over Greater Southeast Community Hospital and Hadley Hospital (now a nursing home) in Washington, D.C., and is proposed by the Mayor, Financial Control Board and their Congressional backers, to take over and dismantle D.C. General Hospital.
The agreement between DCHC and Aliquippa Community Hospital was considered a "done deal," but was canceled as a direct result of information, provided to the hospital medical staff and local activists by Lyndon LaRouche's political action committee FDR-PAC, EIR News Service and representatives of the Coalition to Save D.C. General Hospital. This included documentation that DCHC and their partner firm National Century Financial Enterprises (NCFE) are currently charged in lawsuits filed in Boston, Massachusetts, Durham, North Carolina, and Louisville, Kentucky with systematic racketeering and fraud in the looting of hospitals and healthcare organizations. In the face of this exposure, DCHC attempted a cover-up, telling investigative reporters that the suit against them for stealing $12 million and bankrupting Boston Regional Medical Center had been dropped on March 23, 2001. This turned out to be a lie, and that, in fact, only a request for immediate seizure of DCHC/NCFE funds had been withdrawn, whereas the suit continues in full force. Moody's, the Wall Street investment service, was also involved in covering for DCHC by rating their bonds "AAA." An interview with Moody's Vice President revealed that its "AAA" rating is based on the contention that even if DCHC were found guilty of fraud in the legal actions, somehow its creditors could still collect the funds, even though these funds would then be classified as stolen.
Over the past several weeks, the proposal by D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams, the Control Board and their Congressional backers, for DCHC to take over and dismantle D.C. General Hospital, has met with massive opposition from citizens, elected officials, trade union, religious, and civil rights leaders, not just in the District, but nationwide. Over 400 prominent individuals from 35 states, including 5 former Congressmen and administration officials, 80 state legislators, and hundreds of others have endorsed statements that support D.C. General Hospital remaining open as a full service, public institution.
This latest development in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, means that if the Mayor and the Congressionally mandated Control Board, now attempt to impose DCHC and dismantle D.C. General Hospital, they will be liable for charges of corruption and complicity in corruption. The Mayor's and the Control Board's continued insistence on a doomed course is inexplicable, except if one looks at the networks which are pulling the strings, like Katharine Graham's Federal City Council with their "Negro Removal Program." The time has come "to rip the sheets off" of the real perpetrators behind the operations to close D.C. General Hospital. The consequences of their course is quite clear: It will kill people.
These developments in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, should serve as a wake-up call. D.C. General Hospital must be restored as a fully funded, full-service, public hospital.
