Editorial: A new hospital is wisely put on hold

Clark County Commissioner Erin Kenny was furious when fellow commissioners, in a 4-2 vote, derailed her plan that could have resulted in the construction of a government-owned, $92-million children's hospital in Las Vegas. "Residents of Clark County, ignore the red herrings; this is politics at its finest," Kenny responded at Tuesday's County Commission meeting. "This is one of the greatest injustices I have ever seen." Despite Kenny's accusations, the fact is it took much more political courage to vote against the proposal. After all, it is easy to demonize politicians who vote against so-called "children's issues."

Kenny wanted to place on the November ballot a referendum which, if passed, would have allowed University Medical Center to build the valley's first children's hospital. But the fact of the matter is that there was not enough public input to see if there really is a need for a new, 152-bed children's hospital. Instead the commission, after rejecting Kenny's proposal, sensibly voted to create a task force to examine this issue over the next year, to assess whether a children's hospital is warranted. Someday a hospital may be necessary, but it would have been foolish to press forward at this time.

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