A new company policy in which Prince George?s hospitals will serve inmates during “emergency” visits only would not have prevented a recent armed convict?s escape from Laurel Regional Hospital, state corrections officials said.

Kelvin Poke, who took guns from two officers and led police on a manhunt before he was killed, would still have gone to the hospital last week because he was sent to the emergency room with chest pains, said Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services spokesman Mark Vernarelli.