St. Bernard - There has only been one public place for urgent medical care in St. Bernard Parish since Hurricane Katrina. While the trailer facility is equipped to treat a number of aliments, the most serious cases require a hospital.After waiting nearly 5 years, the possibility of a hospital has finally become a reality.
Councilman Wayne Landry says the Hospital Service Board and the Meraux Foundation have now agreed to the language in the donation documents.
Landry says, "Those documents, once they're signed will be forwarded to the state and we will be waiting for them to literally say go ahead and we can start building our hospital."
Construction could begin in as soon as 2 weeks on the 11 and half acres donated by the Meraux Foundation.
Phillip Wendling is the project executive. He says the new hospital will be a state of the art facility with an electronic medical recording keeping system and all digital equipment.
Wendling says, "This is going to be a 2 story 40 bed hospital. It will be about 104,000 square feet."
Tens of thousands of residents have not returned to the parish since the storm. Some believe a new hospital will give people a reason to come home.
Rita Gue with the Meraux Foundation says, "We're so excited about this becoming a reality. We really want to thank Parish President Craig Taffaro and Danny Dysart for their support on the project."
