December 10, 2024

UUP President Fred Kowal joined more than 30 state legislators, union leaders and community health care advocates at a Dec. 9 press conference to call on Gov. Kathy Hochul to sign a bill that gives communities a chance to speak out publicly before a hospital serving their area is shut down.

“I call on the governor of this state, much as our legislators stood up in defense of health care, to stand up for health care in New York, for hospitals and for a process that ensures the community is heard,” Kowal said at the afternoon event, held on the steps of the state Capitol’s Million Dollar Staircase. “

The Local Input in Community Healthcare Act, or LICH, was approved by the state Legislature earlier this year and has been sent to the governor for her consideration. The bill passed by wide margins in the Senate (57-4) and Assembly (106-39).

If the governor signs the bill, the LICH Act would require the state health commissioner to hold a public community forum on a planned hospital closure no later than 150 days before the facility is shut down. A community forum regarding the closure of emergency, maternity, mental health or substance abuse services must be held no later than 90 days before the proposed date to terminate those departments.

The forums would focus on the impact a hospital closure would have on the community it serves. In both cases, the hospital must submit a revised plan that addresses community concerns; the reports would be made public.

“We must have the last words in this matter, and those words are health care is a right,” Kowal said. “By the signing and passage of this bill, we will be heard.”

UUP’s action save Downstate

It was UUP that thwarted SUNY’s plan—announced unexpectedly in January by SUNY Chancellor John King Jr.—to shut down SUNY Downstate University Hospital by farming out essential health care services offered by the Central Brooklyn hospital to nearby hospitals and moving what was left into a wing in Kings County Hospital Center.

SUNY announced its Downstate closure plan without first seeking input from the public about how shuttering the hospital would affect the Central Brooklyn community and the borough of Brooklyn. More than 400,000 people, many of them Central Brooklyn residents with little or no insurance coverage, are treated that Downstate each year.

UUP, along with community and faith leaders, staged a huge outdoor rally in February that drew nearly 2,000 people and shut down Clarkson Avenue for a half day. SUNY’s closure plan was scrapped after Hochul authorized the April creation of a Downstate community advisory board that will hold public hearings, collect input and offer a plan for the hospital’s future.

After a nearly eight-month delay, Hochul finally announced appointments to the advisory board—which included Kowal—late last month. The board has yet to meet but is expected to do so soon.

Legislators say ‘sign the bill’

A number of legislators who fought with UUP to keep Downstate open were at the press conference, including Assemblymembers Brian Cunningham and Jo Anne Simon, one of the co-sponsors of the bill. They called on the governor to approve the LICH bill and make it law.

“We call on the governor to sign this bill,” Simons, D-Cobble Hill/Brooklyn Heights, said. “It’s on her desk, she has until the end of the week to sign it and now’s the time to do it. It’s an opportunity to demonstrate to New Yorkers that the governor cares about their health care, that cares about kids, that cares about people with mental health issues. That’s why we need to pass this bill.”

“This bill is a game-changer for us,” said Assemblymember Harvey Epstein, D-Manhattan. “This bill, once signed, will make a huge difference and give people in your communities a chance to say what they need. We need this bill signed. For the people of lower Manhattan, for the people of the City of New York and the state of New York, sign this bill.”

The bill is named after the closed Long Island College Hospital—known as LICH—which was shut down by the state in 2013. According to Simon, the state Health Department failed to notify or seek input from communities served by the LICH hospital before it was shuttered.