PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Judy Wessler, Retired Former Director & Co-founder of Commission on the Public's Health System (CPHS)
2:24:54
·
140 sec
Judy Wessler, retired director of CPHS, testified about the ongoing issue of hospital closures in medically underserved, low-income, and often communities of color. She emphasized the worsening situation over the past 30 years and presented evidence of the impact of these closures.
- Wessler shared a report on the impact of Saint Vincent's Hospital closure on Chelsea residents
- She presented maps illustrating the pattern of hospital closings in underserved communities
- Wessler urged the City Council to take a more activist position, suggesting the revival of a task force on hospital closings
Judy Wessler
2:24:54
Thank you for this opportunity.
2:24:57
I'm the c p retired director of CPHS and a board member.
2:25:02
And we've been fighting on this issue for over 30 years.
2:25:08
And it just gets worse.
2:25:10
And our fight has been around trying to save hospitals in medically underserved, low income, and often communities of color.
2:25:20
And and that just makes it worse.
2:25:23
What I have is one copy of a report that was done interviewing tenants, of nature houses, in Chelsea that after the closing of Saint Vincent's, which is perhaps one of the only studies of the impact after the closing.
2:25:49
We are a member of the down state coalition and fighting for that institution.
2:25:57
We have maps.
2:25:59
We did maps because the pictorial is really important.
2:26:03
That show the hospital closings have been primarily in, again, medically underserved low income and communities of color.
2:26:13
And it just shows you how bad, you know, the the picture is.
2:26:19
But I wanna add one thing and that is, again, historically, the city council at one point through the health committee chair actually had a task force on hospital closings.
2:26:35
I unfortunately, could not find the report any place.
2:26:40
And hopefully, with your help, we'll we'll be able to find it.
2:26:44
So I wanted to urge the council to take an even more activist position in doing something like that so that the focus is on this because the impact on our communities is so bad.
2:27:00
So we have a couple of maps.
2:27:02
I have one copy of the St.
2:27:04
Vincent's report, and we would be very, very happy to work with you on this issues.
2:27:13
Thank you for this opportunity.
