Q&A
Discussion about past task force on hospital closings
2:36:28
·
165 sec
Council Member Carlina Rivera inquires about a past task force on hospital closings, and Judy Wessler provides information about its history and outcomes.
- Wessler shares details about the task force's leadership and timeframe
- She mentions a recommendation for $25 million to expand primary care as an outcome of the task force
- Wessler also comments on GNYHA's historical approach to safety net hospitals and the importance of community involvement
Carlina Rivera
2:36:28
And I just wanna say thank you to the advocates.
2:36:31
I wanted to ask Judy, you mentioned there was a task force in in the past.
2:36:36
Right?
2:36:37
Okay.
2:36:37
If you can if you can even find me, like, the term that was in, I can try to look for the report.
Judy Wessler
2:36:42
I know it was in Chris Quinn's sponsorship and actually Helen Sears was the chair of that task force.
2:36:55
Again, I'm I'm not the best, but I really had a hard time.
2:36:59
All I found was one article that referred to it.
2:37:04
Which didn't very much help.
2:37:06
But, you know, perhaps the city's archives, city council's archives might have something.
2:37:14
We work very closely with that task force, you know, and what they were looking at and how and what happened.
2:37:22
So and I I believe I think I'm saying this right, that one of the outcomes of that was a recommendation for the city to put in $25,000,000 to expand primary care around.
2:37:41
And the the money was given through H and HHC, H and H to take a look at that, and there was a community task force that came up with what to look for and how to look for it and, you know, and what communities to target.
2:38:06
So there was an there were other outcomes of that, but that was one of the positive outcomes as I remember.
2:38:14
If I may say just one more thing, it was not until just a couple of years ago that Grady New York Hospital Association did anything about safety net hospitals.
2:38:28
They finally, when Lorraine Brown, was the president set up a task force or some kind of committee to look at the safety net hospitals.
2:38:39
And that was very late in the game.
2:38:41
So I'm I'm glad to hear, you know, that they're concerned about this, but I I would be concerned about their unwillingness to support this bill and, you know, the need for the community to be involved.
2:38:58
It's only through the community involvement and with counsel and other elected officials that we've been able to accomplish anything.
2:39:07
So thank you for this question and let's go ahead.
Carlina Rivera
2:39:10
Thank you.
2:39:11
And thank you very much.
