Judge says bankrupt Alabama county can overhaul hospital

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (Reuters) – A federal judge on Wednesday cleared the way for Alabama’s bankrupt Jefferson County to shut down in-patient services at a government hospital for poor people that loses $10 million a year. Jefferson County, which filed a $4.23 billion bankruptcy nearly a year ago, says it can no longer afford to cover the losses for a 319-bed, in-patient operation that serves only a few dozen people on an average day. But Birmingham, Alabama’s biggest city and the Jefferson County seat, had asked U.S. …