REMARKS
Personal experiences and concerns about hospital closures in Brooklyn
0:51:02
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103 sec
Council Member Mercedes Narcisse shares her personal experiences as a registered nurse and expresses deep concerns about hospital closures in Brooklyn. She emphasizes the importance of addressing health inequities and improving healthcare access.
- Narcisse's background includes over 30 years as a registered nurse, including work in public hospitals
- She highlights the already chaotic nature of hospitals like King's County
- Emphasizes the critical role of H+H hospitals in serving uninsured patients
- Stresses the need to address health inequities and prevent further hospital closures
Mercedes Narcisse
0:51:02
You know, being a registered nurse over 3 decades is kind of tough for me because I'm sitting here.
0:51:08
I I lived some of the experience in the hospital in the ear, by the way, and in the public hospital, h and h.
0:51:14
And knowing that I did internship in King's County, even back in the days, it was very chaotic.
0:51:21
It's a lot.
0:51:22
It's busy.
0:51:22
Like, gad news, and that's where most folks actually am thankful for H and H because those are weird people with no insurance, and that's another conversation.
0:51:32
Medicaid increasing should be.
0:51:35
So I'm very grateful for that, but I know how busy the hospital is.
0:51:40
And then now for closing a hospital directly gonna impact the people where I live, where I, you know, move with and even the public advocate, doctors is in there.
0:51:51
So when you live in Brooklyn, and I'm sure the council member, chair for education mentioned earlier too, that she had the experience because this is directly impacting us as people.
0:52:03
And that's the reason I'm kind of trying to get the full understanding to see where we can fit to make sure that we address health inequities for real in our community.
0:52:14
So if I come a crossed asking too many questions trying to because we have to do better, because we are New York City.
0:52:21
And I do understand that health sometimes is not sexy when you're not sick, and we saw what happened with the pandemic, so we gotta do better.
0:52:30
We gotta do better.
0:52:31
We cannot keep on closing hospital.
0:52:34
Can you describe how the pandemic impacted hospital's financial performance prior to 2020?
0:52:41
And what was the fiscal landscape and how it has changed?
