Union members showed up en masse last Thursday to demand that the State University of New York (SUNY) Downstate Hospital stay open, shutting down the block the hospital occupies. Reverend Al Sharpton, founder and president of the National Action Network (NAN), joined them.
“I was born and raised in Brownsville and I’ve known central Brooklyn all my life,” Sharpton said at the rally. “We have had a [lack] of medical health places to take care of the needs of our community. Downstate has been one of the few. Now they want to blame the lack of funding on the folks that made little do much. This staff has taken little and kept lives going.”
Sharpton said that “shutting down Downstate” will not be tolerated.
The rally bookmarked the latest back and forth between the community and the state over the supposed closure of the hospital, which has suffered from decades of disinvestment and a projected $100 million deficit in the current state budget. SUNY Downstate is a teaching hospital that serves primarily Medicaid and underinsured patients. It’s also where the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) medical device was invented.
Governor Kathy Hochul and SUNY Chancellor John King’s proposed plan involves moving inpatient services across the street to Kings County Hospital, among other things, to alleviate the hospital’s financial strain.
“After decades of disinvestment at SUNY Downstate, Governor Hochul is the first governor to focus on the healthcare needs of Central Brooklyn,” said Hochul’s office in a statement. “She has committed $400 million to bring high-quality health care to residents in a modernized facility while protecting healthcare jobs. At her direction, SUNY will continue to listen to the voices of residents as it finalizes plans to invest in and revitalize Downstate—not close it.”
Several groups and unions don’t support the state’s plan, such as United University Professions (UUP), the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), New York State AFL-CIO, New York State United Teachers (NYSUT), Public Employees Federation (PEF), and New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA).
Five hospitals have closed in Brooklyn since 2003, said UUP.
“It is a travesty that we are here again at SUNY Downstate fighting for this hospital’s survival. I was there in 2012 and 2013, when Governor Cuomo wanted to privatize it,” said PEF President Wayne Spence. “Seven years later, he designated it a COVID-only hospital. The healthcare heroes at Downstate helped hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers survive the pandemic. They are amazing public servants, and they deserve better. If the state really wants to transform Downstate, let’s work together now, when there’s a budget surplus, to fund and staff it, so that anyone who needs quality, affordable health care in Central Brooklyn can get it.”
AFT President Randi Weingarten said that shuttering a hospital in a predominantly Black and brown community that also trains healthcare professionals “is a slap in the face.”
The unions were joined by a group of faith leaders and several elected officials, including Senator Zellnor Myrie and Assemblymember Latrice Walker, who have loudly opposed the state’s plan.
“Brooklyn needs SUNY Downstate,” said Walker. “It is a vital safety-net hospital that treats everyone who walks through their doors regardless of their ability to pay. Ninety percent of the patients there are on Medicaid, uninsured, or underinsured. Most of them are people of color with limited access to quality health care, which ought to be a basic human right. The failure to save SUNY Downstate will only exacerbate the health disparities that already exist in the Brooklyn neighborhoods served by the hospital. The failure to save SUNY Downstate will decrease life expectancy and send the message that some people in Albany don’t care if poor people live or die.”
Rev. Kirkpatrick Cohall, senior pastor of Lenox Road Baptist Church, said the proposed changes to SUNY Downstate have created nothing but anxiety and concern from within the hospital system as well as in the community.
“Downstate has been on the forefront of fighting for equity and access to the best health care in this city for many years,” Cohall in a statement. “The COVID pandemic revealed the enormous disparities in our healthcare system and confirmed that those disparities are deeply rooted in racism and discrimination. Consequently, the proposed changes are viewed with great suspicion and concern that vital services, jobs, and economic stability for the residents will be severely diminished. Keeping Downstate open and viable will continue to address the inequities and disparities in our healthcare system.”
Mayor Eric Adams also weighed in with his support for the hospital at a press conference on Tues, March 5.
“I represented Downstate as a State Senator, and for far too long, there was no real investment in Downstate. And what they did during Covid was remarkable,” said Adams. “If we were to close Downstate, it’s going to have an impact on King’s County, an impact on Brookdale [Hospital] and some of the neighboring hospitals. We had a conversation with Chancellor King to share our concerns, and we’re going to be meeting with the unions and the local electeds in the area.”
Adams said that the state has to come up with a real plan for central Brooklyn in terms of healthcare as well as other state‑run hospitals in other parts of the city. “We’re asking the governor’s people to sit down and come up with a real plan for healthcare in New York City,” said Adams. “But I’m a supporter of Downstate. The issue of seeing Downstate close is going to have a major impact. We’re going to do everything possible to stabilize that healthcare situation in central Brooklyn.”
[updated Thurs, March 7]
Ariama C. Long is a Report for America corps member who writes about politics for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://bit.ly/amnews1.