SAN ANTONIO (AP) _ Six Shriners hospitals that were possible targets for closing appear to have won an initial reprieve.
Delegates at a national Shriners convention voted Monday to keep all the Shriners’ 22 hospitals open, but no decision on the future of the hospitals is final until the convention ends Thursday. The deliberations are done in secret by the fraternal order and the members are allowed to take up new proposals between now and the end of the convention.
In addition, the delegates voted 756-482 to reopen the Shriners Hospital for Children-Galveston. The burn hospital has been closed since Hurricane Ike hit in September.
Tommy Lambright, a member of the board of the Galveston hospital, warned that efforts could be made to bring up new measures to keep the hospital closed, the Houston Chronicle reported.
The Shriners had been asked to close hospitals in Galveston, Shreveport, La., Spokane, Wash., Greenville, S.C., Erie, Pa. and Springfield, Mass.