For Immediate Release

April 18, 2024

Faith Leaders, Community, Students and Labor Come Together to Call on Governor Hochul to Stop the Downstate Closure Plan and Invest in the Hospital's Future

Click Here to Download Video From the Rally and March

BROOKLYN, NY - Nearly a dozen Brooklyn faith leaders came together today in prayer for the future of SUNY Downstate University Hospital, joined by a large group of health care workers, union members, business owners, students and community members

The rally began with prayers at Lenox Road Baptist Church, which offered those assembled an opportunity to show their support for the hospital and the Central Brooklyn community, which is overwhelmingly opposed to SUNY’s plan to close the public teaching facility.

The 5 p.m. rally was intended as a show of support for the hospital and to send a message to Gov. Kathy Hochul that the Central Brooklyn community strongly supports keeping Downstate hospital open at its current location and expanding its services after years of disinvestment by the state.

Brooklyn faith leaders offered prayers and words of healing for the community during the rally and at a short gathering at the hospital afterward. Union leaders and health care workers noted that decades of financial neglect by the state have threatened patients’ access to equitable, high-quality health care services in Brooklyn.

Following the prayer rally, the group of more than 300 marched to SUNY Downstate Hospital for additional prayers and remarks and to show the health care workers, students, and patients inside SUNY Downstate Hospital that the community supports them and has no intention of backing down.

Union and faith leaders are calling for the governor to immediately stop the closure plan and commit to a long-term investment that maintains the hospital as a free-standing facility that can provide core specialty inpatient services and other critical inpatient healthcare services the Central Brooklyn community needs and deserves.

As a public teaching hospital, Downstate treats all patients who walk through its doors. The vast majority of its patients—nearly 90%—are on Medicaid, are underinsured or have no health insurance. It ranks No. 1 out of all 143 hospitals in New York state as a percent of its revenue from Medicaid, meaning the most vulnerable and underserved populations would suffer from its closure.

Downstate is also the only hospital in Brooklyn with a kidney transplant program. And it regularly has significantly lower emergency room wait times compared to neighboring hospitals.

Bishop Orlando Findlayter, Senior Pastor of New Hope Christian Fellowship and a community activist said, “As we continue our fight to save Suny Downstate Medical Center, I was please to join other religious leaders, unions, workers and the community to pray for the future of Downstate. This is a critical institution in our community and we are committed to do all we can to make sure it stays open and continue to provide the services to our community that is so needed. We continue to urge Albany to consider the health disparity of Central Brooklyn before making any decisions that would negatively affect the hundreds of thousands of people that will be impacted by the closure of SUNY Downstate Medical Center.”

UUP President Frederick E. Kowal said, “SUNY’s inept, shortsighted plan to close SUNY Downstate University Hospital would be well underway if it weren’t for overwhelming pushback against it from a dedicated coalition of community and faith leaders, Downstate medical professionals and medical students, and organized labor. UUP has been outspoken in its support of this important public teaching hospital and we will continue fighting until its future is secure. We stand united with our community partners in doing all we can to keep SUNY Downstate Hospital open for the hundreds of thousands of patients that depend on it for vital health care services each year.”

PEF President Wayne Spence said, “Since PEF and UUP first heard in mid-January about the State’s plan to close SUNY Downstate, we’ve worked tirelessly to build a coalition and raise up the great work performed by these Brooklyn healthcare heroes. Our message was simple – Brooklyn Needs Downstate – and this rally and march is one more way for us to show how essential this hospital is to the community it serves.”

UUP Downstate Chapter President Redetha Abrahams-Nichols said, “Downstate is the community's hospital and when SUNY announced its plan to close Downstate, our community fought back. They sent a clear, direct message to the governor and the SUNY Chancellor: You will not shut our hospital down. We refused to be silenced, ignored or discriminated against. We spoke our truth and our message was heard.”

PEF Council Leader and SUNY Downstate Nurse Joan Rosegreen said, “I made sure every patient I treated at Downstate since we heard about the State’s closure plan is aware of what New York wants to do to THEIR hospital. Downstate is a jewel in the Brooklyn community, and we are proud of the life-saving work that happens inside it every day.”

Brooklyn was the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak during the early days of the pandemic and Downstate was designated a COVID-only hospital, charged with treating the sickest New Yorkers. As a result of this designation, which came after years of financial neglect by the state, the hospital was left in even greater need of investment and updates. Several restoration and modernization projects are underway. With the state’s focus on maternal and mental health, Downstate offers an opportunity to be the solution to many of the state’s health care shortfalls.

By The Numbers:

• It is estimated that Downstate’s closure would put 20-50% of the workforce in jeopardy.
• More than 400,000 patients receive care at Downstate each year.
• Downstate houses Brooklyn’s only kidney transplant program.
• Five hospitals have closed in Brooklyn since 2003.
• Brooklyn is the largest borough in New York City.