For Immediate Release

September 10, 2024

Faith Leaders Come Together to Keep Attention on the Future of Brooklyn’s only public teaching hospital and to Call for Investment in its Future

BROOKLYN, NY – People from across Brooklyn and New York, including a large crowd of health care workers, organized labor, faith leaders, elected officials and Central Brooklyn business owners and community members, came together in a community walk to send a message that the fight to save SUNY Downstate University Hospital is not over.

They began with prayers, which were followed by remarks from legislators and union leaders at a press conference outside the hospital’s main entrance on Lenox Road. Supporters called for keeping Downstate open with a full range of inpatient services.

After the press conference, the group marched around the block, starting, and ending at the hospital’s Lenox Road entrance.

United University Professions (UUP), the nation’s largest higher education union, co-hosted the walk today with Brooklyn faith leaders.

“Downstate hospital provides unique, cutting-edge health services that are absolutely crucial to the health and well-being of the community,” said Frederick E. Kowal, president of United University Professions. “The community and the unions that represent Downstate workers have not only been steadfast in their support of Downstate, but also in expanding inpatient services and growing the hospital to make it even more responsive and indispensable to the Central Brooklyn community.”

“We’ve been holding these marches since the beginning of summer to make sure that the governor, the SUNY chancellor and state politicians don’t forget that Brooklyn needs Downstate,” said Redetha Abrahams-Nichols, president of UUP’s Downstate Chapter. “Even though we stopped the chancellor from shutting our hospital down earlier this year, this fight continues and it is one we are committed to winning. We won’t stop fighting until the future of our hospital is secure.”

The noon walk drew Downstate faculty and staff, residents, medical students, patients, business owners, and community members who gathered in solidarity to show Gov. Kathy Hochul and SUNY Chancellor John King Jr. why the state must invest in SUNY Downstate Hospital so that it remains a resource to the community for years to come.

Speakers noted that decades of neglect and disinvestment by the state have threatened patients’ access to equitable, high-quality healthcare services in Brooklyn.

Union and faith leaders are calling for the governor to move forward with the panel that will ultimately decide the future of the hospital, but also to 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 health care that 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.

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 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:

• More than 2,300 UUP members serve patients at Downstate.
• It is estimated that a 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.