Mayor Bloomberg's $500 Million Repair Fund Will Not Fix Healthcare Inequality
NEW YORK (12-Nov-2012) -- At Mayor Michael Bloomberg's news conference today, he announced a $500 million emergency repair fund for schools and public hospitals.
But this repair fund will not fix the grossly uneven distribution of hospital beds in Manhattan. Please see the attached map used by St. Vincent's Hospital activists that demonstrates the dangerous distribution of hospital beds in Manhattan.
Watch this 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 :
"Let us pray that our political leaders and public health commissioners will use this opportunity to really examine and fix the unequal provision of healthcare that Hurricane Sandy has exposed," said Louis Flores.
Can one partially-functioning hospital on back-up generators be deemed "excess capacity" ?
The nurses' union, NYSNA, reported that in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, the only functioning hospital below 57th Street in Manhattan was Beth Israel Hospital, which was operating on back-up generators :
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 ?
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.
Healthcare activists demand to know : Why is this acceptable ?
St. Vincent's 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 Christine Quinn had fought to keep it 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.
Click here to read the mayor's repair fund news release.
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