Brooklyn for Downstate leaders heard community concerns at an October 24 community forum on the importance of SUNY Downstate Hospital.
Link to video clips of meeting
BROOKLYN, NY – A group of 65 people came together last night to discuss the future of SUNY Downstate University Hospital. The large crowd of business owners, residents, healthcare workers, union members, students and faith leaders met to announce the formation of a community coalition called Brooklyn for Downstate. The group also hosted a forum to hear from community members about essential services that must remain at the hospital.
The coalition’s purpose is to create a forum for everyone in Brooklyn to have a say about the future of SUNY Downstate Hospital. In May, the Governor announced the creation of a state-appointed advisory board to decide the hospital’s future. The advisory board will be made up mostly of the Governor’s appointees, and members appointed by the Legislature.
“The Brooklyn community was taken completely by surprise by SUNY’s plans to close the hospital, which were callously announced on Martin Luther King Jr. Day earlier this year,” said Redetha Abraham-Nichols, DNP, MRA, RN. “My community will not stand by while Albany decides the future of our hospital—and the futures of countless medical students, residents and patients who rely on Downstate for medical care and crucial services they can’t get anywhere else. We formed our own community coalition to bring people from every corner of Brooklyn together to ensure our voices are heard by the state-appointed advisory board, and ultimately the SUNY Chancellor and the Governor, who seem to be set on closing Downstate. Let me be clear: Brooklyn will not let that happen.”
The early evening meeting in the auditorium of the Janice Marie Knight School was intended to launch the Brooklyn for Downstate community coalition and to show support for SUNY Downstate and the inpatient services it provides. The community has banded together to send a message to the state-appointed board that Central Brooklyn strongly supports keeping Downstate hospital open at its current location and expanding its inpatient services after years of state disinvestment.
Brooklyn was the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak during the early days of the pandemic and Downstate was designated a COVID-only hospital, charged with treating the sickest New Yorkers. As a result of this designation, which came after years of financial neglect by the state, the hospital was left in even greater need of investment and updates.
Several restoration and modernization projects are underway. With the state’s focus on maternal and mental health, Downstate offers an opportunity to be the solution to many of the state’s healthcare shortfalls.