Community fights for health care

Following the closing of the landmark St. Vincent’s Hospital on the westside of downtown Manhattan, the community continues to fight for its replacement.

On Oct. 17, at the site of the padlocked and boarded-up hospital, about 1,000 protesters gathered for a “100 Days Without a Hospital” rally called by the Coalition for a New Village Hospital and sponsored by many local organizations. Demonstrators included community residents, nurses, doctors, clergy and area merchants.

Protesters demanded restoration of a new full-service hospital. St. Vincent’s was the primary care center for the area, serving approximately a half million residents as well as 815,000 private-sector workers, college and university students, and millions of tourists. It was a full-service hospital with a Level 1 Trauma Center emergency room. Its mission was no denial of care to anyone — everyone had a right to health care.

St. Vincent’s patients included the poor and uninsured. It was one of the city’s first treatment centers for HIV/AIDS. It had a psychiatric building for in-patient and out-patient service; pediatric, geriatric, pulmonary and infectious diseases clinics; numerous medical departments; and a relatively new cancer care building.

Since the official closing of the hospital on April 30, promises to provide an urgent-care facility in its place have not materialized. Protesters have complained about the passivity and silence of public health officials and politicians when the closing was proposed, throughout the process and currently. They declared that the city’s billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg and city and state health commissioners have ignored the area’s medical needs.

Sign-carrying demonstrators loudly chanted, “Give us back our hospital!” and “No condos!” One sign read, “Stop the terror of greed!” Last year’s rumor that the hospital’s prime site may be converted to luxury condos by real estate developers now appears to be a reality for some of the buildings.

A doctor at the rally said, “The Department of Health has pursued an utterly bankrupt policy, totally disregarding [its] legal and moral responsibilities, and has abandoned the population.” Overcrowding and dangerous conditions are being reported in hospitals in other parts of the city, which now have to serve thousands more patients. Because of traffic patterns, medical crises and emergencies have become life threatening when patients must be transported to other areas.

‘We will not be silent!’

“According to politicians we don’t have the money,” said Eileen Dunn of the New York State Nurses Association. “But we can’t put a dollar sign on patients’ lives. We’ll do whatever it takes for as long as it takes. We need a revolution!” Dunn said some staff have not yet received severance or back pay.

Barbara Crane, president of the National Federation of Nurses, voiced her disbelief that St. Vincent’s was allowed to close. She shouted, “We will not be silent! Take to the streets!”

Community activist and attorney Yetta Kurland, whose firm filed a lawsuit in August against the State Department of Health, said, “We’re here today to let our elected officials know that we are not going to be quiet. We’re going to continue to show up until we have full restoration of emergency services and hospital care here at the site of St. Vincent’s.” The suit was subsequently moved to Federal Bankruptcy Court where the judge cancelled it. The same judge also denied the April request for a stay in the hospital closing. Kurland is appealing that ruling.

The hospital is being charged with mismanagement of tax returns, $10 million per year executive salaries, $17 million for “management consultants” and $300,000 for golf outings. At the time of its closing the bankrupt hospital was many millions in debt.

In August the local community board passed a resolution that the land could only be used for a hospital. The protestors are demanding the resolution be honored and this issue be addressed.

The Coalition for a New Village Hospital is determined to continue the fight, saying they will settle for nothing less than a replacement hospital on the site. More meetings and rallies are planned. The coalition requests that supporters call or write their public officials to insist on the need for the hospital.