Dear Friends :
But this repair fund will not "fix" the grossly uneven distribution of hospital beds in Manhattan. Please watch this comprehensive YouTube video that questions the impact of the Berger Commission hospital closings on our hospital systems, now that they have been damaged by Hurricane Sandy :
At today's news conference, Mayor Bloomberg announced that Emergency Room services at Bellevue Hospital may return on November 19 -- meaning, residents, employees, and visitors to the Lower West Side have to keep waiting. Until then, our loved ones and maybe even ourselves, must use St. Luke's-Roosevelt, Beth Israel, or New York Downtown Hospitals, which are now swamped, because the Emergency Departments at NYU Langone, the VA Hospital, and Bellevue continue to be closed.
Note that the nurses' union, NYSNA, reported that in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, the only functioning hospital below 57th Street was Beth Israel Hospital, which was operating on back-up generators : http://www.nysna.org/hhcUpdates/index.htm
Did you hear that, in the face of this dangerous situation, North Shore-LIJ CEO Michael Dowling said that he did not want Hurricane Sandy to be used as "justification" to restore a full-service hospital in the Lower West Side of Manhattan ? http://www.northshorelij.com/NSLIJ/storm-shows-hospital-excess
How much more insensitive could Mr. Dowling be ? Even in the aftermath of such a devastating natural disaster, North Shore-LIJ is putting its financial interests before our public health.
Why is this acceptable ?
Mayor Bloomberg's announcement did provide some hope :
- Bellevue Hospital's Outpatient Department is expected to open on or about November 19 for 24 hrs/7 da/wk service ; and
- Coney Island Hospital's Outpatient Department is expected to open in about three days for 24 hrs/7 da/wk service.
But note that just repairing Bellevue Hospital in the East Side still does nothing to the people on the Lower West Side, who need a full-service hospital.
The taboo question that the media is too afraid to ask is : How could St. Vincent's Hospital have helped in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, if it would have been kept open ? Will we ever know the true loss to public health that we paid, and continue to pay, after Bill Rudin's luxury condo conversion plan was approved by the New York City Council.
To read the mayor's news release, please visit : http://www.nyc.gov/portal/site/nycgov/menuitem.c0935b9a57bb4ef3daf2f1c701c789a0/index.jsp?pageID=mayor_press_release&catID=1194&doc_name=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nyc.gov%2Fhtml%2Fom%2Fhtml%2F2012b%2Fpr417-12.html&cc=unused1978&rc=1194&ndi=1
If this link doesn't work, please visit : http://www.nyc.gov/html/index.html and navigate to the "News and Press Releases" link on the upper left hand corner.
Let us pray that our leaders and public health commissioners will use this opportunity to really examine and fix the unequal provision of healthcare that Hurricane Sandy has exposed -- before the next mass emergency.
Thank you for all you do.
