This was the most recent in a series of rallies here since the Public Benefit Corp. Board, which administers the hospital, announced plans to eliminate the hospital's remaining 250 beds and lay off 550 employees.

All items in the Washington municipal budget must be approved by a financial control board that was appointed by the U.S. Congress and the White House in the mid-1990s. The board has stepped up pressure on the hospital to "live within its budget."

Many workers mingled in the hallway and discussed plans for further protests as city health officials attempted to defend their proposed health-care cuts.

The previous week 200 hospital workers and their supporters picketed the mayor's office. "A dollar bill is more important than human life in this city," exclaimed Ted King, a taxi cab driver who joined the rally.

Pickets confronted D.C. General's health director Ivan Walks, as he attempted to enter the building. Walks argued that by converting the hospital to a smaller emergency care facility, more funding could be diverted to primary care in the city's eight clinics.

In a tense exchange, Dr. Michal Young, a pediatrician, scolded Walks, saying, "How dare you counterpose better primary care to that provided by the hospital." Young called Walks's promise of better primary care a fraud. "The clinic system in this city is in disarray and they don't have the facilities to replace this hospital. We will continue to support the community and not give your action our blessing," she added.

Faced with growing anger at plans to close the hospital, most council members expressed "skepticism" at plans to close the facility and have delayed taking action.

The board plans to convert the hospital into an emergency facility that would transfer patients to other hospitals within 23 hours after being treated. City officials have been mute about how they would pay for stays at private hospitals.

There is concern throughout working-class areas of the city that private hospitals will turn away those without health insurance. According to the Urban Institute, most of the city's private hospitals don't provide the legally required level of free health care--equivalent to 3 percent of their revenues.

In the weeks leading up to the council hearing, members of Healthcare Now, a coalition of union workers, doctors, nurses, and staff who work in the hospital and supporters throughout the city, released the results of a survey showing that the city's private hospitals routinely referred uninsured patients to D.C. General Hospital.

During the hearing, Robert Malson, president of the D.C. Hospital Association, conceded that D.C. General serves one third of patients in the city without health -care insurance, while the other 19 private hospitals together serve the remaining two thirds.

The first phase of the board's plan calls for the layoffs and shutdown of the hospital's pediatrics, obstetrics, gynecology, and substance abuse departments. Colin Dias, a graduate of Howard University Medical School, is doing his rotations in the pediatrics department of the hospital along with Brenda James. Early in the week, they said, letters were sent to hundreds of parents advising them to make alternative plans for the health-care needs of their children.

According to the State Center for Health Statistics, infant mortality in the district rivaled that of third world countries--14.9 percent as of 1996. For Blacks, the big majority of the city's population, the rate was three times that of the country as a whole, at 17.6 percent. Only 64 percent of women in the district received prenatal care in the first trimester, 20 percent less than in the U.S. Deaths from HIV/AIDS infection in the district stands at 46.1 per 100,000 as compared with 6.2 nationally.

Sam Manuel is the Socialist Workers candidate for D.C. delegate to the House of Representatives, Janice Lynn contributed to this article.