Jindal: Teaching Hospital will be built

In an exclusive interview with Eyewitness News, Governor Bobby Jindal said the teaching hospital planned for downtown New Orleans will be built, even though the state and FEMA are still far apart on what the federal government owes Louisiana for Hurricane Katrina damage to Charity Hospital.

The governor's comments came one week after he signed the agreement with local universities to run the hospital.? It was the day backers of the downtown biomedical corridor had been waiting for.?

Jindal and officials from LSU, Tulane and other local universities gathered on August 28 to sign off on an independent board for the proposed teaching hospital.

The agreement calls for the $1.2 billion hospital to be owned by LSU but governed by a private, nonprofit board.? It will be made up of members from LSU, Tulane, Xavier and Dillard Universities, as well as Delgado Community College and four independent members.

The ceremonial signing was not the last hurdle in bringing this project to reality, but one that was frought with controversy from day one.? While the governor said it took a lot of people coming together, observers much of the credit has to go to the Jindal administration for taking a hard line approach.

"The state finally said enough is enough. We have to move forward with this, we can't talk about this forever," Jindal said in a WWL-TV interview.? "We need a deal that's good for the state.? This isn't just about LSU, not just about Tulane.? I met with the leaders in both institutions to say, 'We're moving forward.'"

Jindal calls this deal the best for everyone, bringing all the universities involved into an independent board to build and run a teaching hospital that will compete with any other in the world.? The governor says this will give New Orleans first class health care and provide an economic engine in the biomedical industry, the likes of which this state has never seen before.

But there is still one more hurdle to jump: financing and how much money the state will get from FEMA for the damage done to Charity Hospital by Hurricane Katrina.?? The state and FEMA are about to enter binding arbitration and the two sides are miles apart.

"We've talked to the Obama administration several times, and they've been very clear to us that whatever money we get out of FEMA, whether it's what we expect, which is $492 (million) or closer to what they're offering today, $150 (million), they made it clear they're open to providing additional funding from other sources within the federal government."

"We still have to get a final number from FEMA.? Whatever that number is we have to move forward," he said.

He says the state will still fight for the most money it can get from FEMA but whatever the final number is this project will happen.? Jindal says it's been four years since Katrina and there has been enough talk.? He says it's time to get moving.

And he says within the year, there will be shovels in the ground and construction underway on the hospital site.? The governor says the Veterans Administration hospital and teaching hospital will be on the Tulane Avenue-Gravier Street site.