LARGO Md. (DC News Now) — In Prince George’s County, long wait times at hospital emergency rooms are causing concerns.
The Council is addressing the issue and has created a task force to monitor the situation in hopes it will help to cut down on emergency room wait times.
Largo resident Rande Atcherson is glad the task force is keeping an eye on the problem. He said last summer he took his cousin to a hospital in Largo because she was having health problems, and they waited fpr 13 hours until his cousin could be seen by a doctor.
“We sat there from 10 in the morning and we didn’t get to see a doctor in a room until midnight,” Atcherson said.
The task force that the council created consists of 17 people. Since its creation, the group has toured and visited nine emergency rooms at hospitals around the county.
Councilwoman Wala Blegay said the task force wanted to present their findings Thursday but decided to wait and extend their mission to give the task force more time.
“We found that there are some issues we really need to address, and we need more time to put together a comprehensive package together and that will have recommendations that are thoughtful,” Blegay said.
She said one of the main problems is that there is a shortage of emergency room doctors. Task Force member Jeffrey Cooper said there is still lots of work to get done.
“We here in Prince George’s County are in a position to make a policy recommendation so we can have a first-class ER system,” Blegay said.
Once the task force is ready to make recommendations, they will submit their findings to the Council.
