With cash set to run out in May, Jackson Chief Executive Eneida Roldan announced a recovery plan that would cut costs by $165.4 million by laying off 4,487 workers and closing the system's two satellite hospitals -- Jackson South and Jackson North.

The closings are likely to mean longer waits for everyone in emergency rooms throughout the county and some persons leaving without getting treatment, said David Small, Jackson's chief operating officer.

``We have to act,'' Roldan told a room packed with grim-faced employees. ``This is the first step to becoming a sustainable, stronger system.'' That will mean returing to a facilty in the central city, far from the prosperous suburbs.

Roldan asked members of the governing body, the Public Health Trust, to act within 10 business days.

Several members searched for alternatives, saying they hoped Roldan's plan was ``a worse-case scenario'' with a government bailout coming in some form or union workers offering to take a 10 percent pay cut.

County leaders have said they don't have the bailout money. The state is pinched for cash. And a plan to get more money out of Washington might work, but that money could be many months away.

After the meeting, Martha Baker, president of Local 1991 of the Service Employees International Union, said, ``Cuts are not the answer,'' either in jobs or in salaries. She urged Roldan to continue with their 45-day partnership to find cost efficiencies in the system.

Without drastic cuts, Jackson is expected to lose $229.4 million this year. In January, the system lost $23.4 million. Days of cash on hand -- the money needed to pay immediate bills -- was 21.08 days, down from 22.7 in December. Executives worry the system may be out of money by May.

Roldan's timetable is set up so that the workers -- more than a third of the work force -- would be out of work in early May and the facilities would be closed down.