PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Zellnor Myrie, State Senator from New York State Senate, on Hospital Closures and Community Health
1:39:56
·
3 min
State Senator Zellnor Myrie testified about the importance of safety net hospitals in communities and the negative impacts of hospital closures. He emphasized the need for transparency and community engagement in decisions regarding hospital closures or service reductions, particularly in underserved areas.
- Highlighted the proposed closure of SUNY Downstate in Central Brooklyn and criticized the insufficient public outreach process
- Discussed co-sponsorship of the Local Input and Community Healthcare Act to improve public engagement processes for hospital closures
- Addressed the maternal health crisis, especially among black women in Brooklyn, and mentioned the Chisholm Chance Act to address these disparities
Zellnor Myrie
1:39:56
Thank you to the chairs of the committees, chairs our seats, chair Schulman, and to the members of the relevant committees.
1:40:03
I am here in my capacity as a state senator representing the 20th senatorial district.
1:40:09
I represent SUNY Downstate.
1:40:11
But I also am speaking as a New Yorker born in a safety net hospital.
1:40:15
I was born at what is now known as interfaith hospital in Crown Heights.
1:40:20
Hospitals are anchors in the communities that they serve.
1:40:23
And they provide health care to everyone in a community regardless of income or status.
1:40:28
They also know the cultural needs of the communities that they serve.
1:40:32
It follows then that hospital closures have ripple effects for the entire community.
1:40:38
Jobs are lost, access to affordable and quality care is reduced, and trust is diminished by disinvesting in a community.
1:40:46
It's a story that's been tragically repeated over and over, and we've heard a number of those tragedies here today at this hearing.
1:40:53
But in my community in Central Brooklyn, there's a plan to close SUNY Downstate, an institution that served our community during the darkest days of the pandemic that houses the only kidney transplant center in 1 of 2 regional paranasal centers in Brooklyn.
1:41:10
The proposal included a, quote unquote, public outreach process that was rushed, opaque, and wholly insufficient.
1:41:20
There were closed door invitation only focused groups in a last minute report thrown together that summarized its preordained conclusions.
1:41:29
It was frankly an insult to my community, and I am proud that we mobilized to fight back against this plan.
1:41:38
I'm also proud to be a co sponsor of the local input and community health care act sponsored by my good colleague, Joanne Simon, which passed both houses of the legislature this year, and they will hopefully be signed into law soon.
1:41:51
As she just said, this bill will put into place new public engagement processes when a general hospital seeks to entirely close or shut her a unit that provides emergency, maternal, mental health or substance use care services, services that are particularly essential in communities like the one I represent.
1:42:09
Ever since COVID, there's been a dramatic decrease in the availability of mental health care and psych beds, and the maternal health care crisis is especially dire with black women in Brooklyn more than nine times as likely to die in childbirth as their white counterparts, which is why I was pleased that this council recently passed a resolution endorsing the chisholm chant act, a bill that I sponsored, which recognizes and seeks to address this maternal health crisis facing black and brown communities, especially in Brooklyn and the Bronx.
1:42:40
Our hospitals are critical pieces of community infrastructure, and we must demand transparency true community engagement, and partnership when a facility plans to close or do service.
1:42:51
So I'm grateful to the council for taking a stand for public health by formally endorsing this important legislation and for holding his hearing today.
1:42:59
Thank you.
