WASHINGTON — Hospital trauma centers in seven major cities do not have the capacity to handle even a modest terrorist attack, according to findings released Monday from a House committee investigation. Lawmakers looked into hospitals’ ability to deal with a sudden influx of victims in the five cities considered at highest risk for terrorist attack and in the two cities hosting this summer’s political conventions. The 34 hospitals surveyed in New York City, Washington, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Denver and Minneapolis had no space in their emergency rooms to treat a sudden surge of victims, had few available beds in their intensive care units and too few regular beds to handle even those with less serious injuries. Hospitals in Washington and Los Angeles were particularly overburdened, said Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. He called the inquiry’s results ‘truly alarming.’ The survey was taken March 25 at 4:30 p.m. local time in each city. The date was chosen at random; the time was chosen because it was neither the busiest nor slowest time of day in emergency rooms. ‘If a terrorist attack had occurred on March 25 when […]