November 26, 2024
UUP President Fred Kowal is one of eight members appointed to a state-created advisory panel that will make recommendations on the future of SUNY Downstate University Hospital.
Hochul announced the appointments Nov. 25, nearly seven months after announcing the panel’s formation. A ninth member has yet to be appointed; that prospective member is still undergoing a background check, according to a story in Politico.
Kowal is the sole union representative on the panel; UUP represents the largest group of unionized hospital employees at Downstate.
“SUNY Downstate Hospital and SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University faculty and staff not only provide medical services that maintain the health and well-being of Brooklyn residents, but also train the next generation of health care professionals who will expand the health care workforce,” Kowal said. “I am eager to work with the community and leaders in health care and education to develop the best path forward to strengthen the institution, maximize the impact of up to $750 million in state capital funding and ensure SUNY Downstate’s long-term security and stability consistent with the advisory board’s mandate.”
In addition to Kowal, the other members are:
- Hochul appointments: Citizens Budget Commission President Andrew Rein; Dr. Lesly Kernisant, formerly of the Brooklyn Plaza Medical Center; and Pastor Louis Hilton Straker Jr.
- Senate appointment: Dr. Enitza George, chair of SUNY Downstate’s Department of Family and Community Health.
- Assembly appointment: Dr. Donald Moore, a former attending physician at New York Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital.
- SUNY appointment: SUNY Chancellor John King
- State Department of Health appointment: State Health Commissioner James McDonald.
The advisory board will recommend how the state should use up to $750 million in capital funds for Downstate. The panel is expected to hold three public hearings before compiling a report and submitting it to the Legislature by April 1, 2025.
Long effort to stave off closure
The governor’s decision to name an advisory board followed a surprise announcement in January by SUNY Chancellor John King Jr. that Downstate University Hospital would be repurposed—with a planned reduction of its services so severe that UUP considered the move as an attempt by SUNY to close the hospital. Downstate has been threatened with closure or severe downsizing twice before in the last 20 years, and UUP has played a lead role in saving it both times.
UUP quickly launched a campaign to protect the hospital from closure. That campaign involved marches, news conferences and rallies—including a massive rally in February that filled the block in front of the hospital’s main entrance on Clarkson Avenue. Numerous national labor and social justice leaders spoke at that rally.
Kowal also sharply criticized SUNY Chancellor King in a Nov. 1 press release for failing to submit a budget plan for Downstate. The release of $100 million in operating funds for the hospital depended on the development of that budget plan.
The Downstate UUP Chapter, led by Redetha Abrahams-Nichols, has held weekly marches around the hospital—with guest speakers and members holding signs—to remind the state to fulfill its promise of an advisory board.
UUP has also worked closely with state lawmakers who fear the effects that a closure of Downstate would have on the impoverished neighborhood surrounding the hospital, including Sen. Zellnor Myrie, whose district includes the hospital campus.
Kings County Hospital Center, across the street from the Downstate campus, is unable to absorb the overflow in its emergency department if Downstate closes, Myrie and other lawmakers have said. Other hospitals in Brooklyn are too far away for Downstate patients to easily travel to them.