The 25th District is home to the state’s newest medical center, which is operated by a state governmental system. It is imperative that the state supports the efficiency of current operations and prospective growth of services for the University of Maryland Capital Region Medical Center to fill open positions, especially our nurses, and to reduce emergency room wait times. Additionally, we have to ensure that our communities have access to urgent care and outpatient facilities so that we are not utilizing emergency medicine as our primary care treatment facilities. 

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Our government must recognize that one of the vital factors to our communities’ health is what we consume, the need to tackle food deserts and swamps in underserved communities and, that, for many zip codes, there are more dialysis centers than grocery stores.

 

Commitment: I will work to pass enabling state legislation that authorizes local governments to incentivize full-service grocery stores, not convenience stores where the alcohol and tobacco products outnumber the fresh produce, to operate in disadvantaged zip codes. In partnership with hospital management and union leadership, we must aggressively aim to reduce wait times in our emergency rooms. To address the cost of prescription drugs and access to mental health services, I will support any legislative measure that equitably tackles these priorities