Brooklyn Rallies To Save Interfaith Hospital
Mar 2, 2013
It was a cold, clear early March morning. But that didn't stop Brooklyn residents from gathering in front of Interfaith Medical Center in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn to demand that the hospital be kept as a full service health care facility that surrounding neighborhoods can depend upon. Some 500 letters to the state health commissioner, Dr. Nirav Shah, had been collected and were to be mailed to him today at the culmination of the event: a press conference and protest demonstration, followed by a spirited march up busy Fulton Street to the post office at Restoration Plaza.
Recent news reports have suggested that the hospital, which struggles with finances because so many of its patients are poor, drawn from the communities adjacent to it, would be merged with Brooklyn Hospital. Residents have objected to the merger because it would mean a loss of community input and the very likely probability that the hospital would be converted from a full service facility into a limited-purpose adjunct of Brooklyn. Thus would one more of Brooklyn's hospitals be cut back or closed down, restricting, once again, access to health care by the borough's 2.8 million residents.
Speaker after speaker demanded that the hospital be fully funded, pointing out that health care must be considered a human right and not a business venture. Among the speakers were the local Distrcit Leader of the 56th Assembly District, Robert Cornegy, State Assembly member Annette Robinson and community activist, Jelani Mashariki.
Matthew Weinstein, of Brooklyn For Peace, spoke and connected the dots between misguided priorities in Washington, which favors military spending over people's needs, and the local struggles over cutbacks, closings and layoffs. The peace group, which brought members to participate in today's event, handed out a flyer that called on government to "Close down the wars, not Brooklyn hospitals!"
Read MoreIt was a cold, clear early March morning. But that didn't stop Brooklyn residents from gathering in front of Interfaith Medical Center in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn to demand that the hospital be kept as a full service health care facility that surrounding neighborhoods can depend upon. Some 500 letters to the state health commissioner, Dr. Nirav Shah, had been collected and were to be mailed to him today at the culmination of the event: a press conference and protest demonstration, followed by a spirited march up busy Fulton Street to the post office at Restoration Plaza.
Recent news reports have suggested that the hospital, which struggles with finances because so many of its patients are poor, drawn from the communities adjacent to it, would be merged with Brooklyn Hospital. Residents have objected to the merger because it would mean a loss of community input and the very likely probability that the hospital would be converted from a full service facility into a limited-purpose adjunct of Brooklyn. Thus would one more of Brooklyn's hospitals be cut back or closed down, restricting, once again, access to health care by the borough's 2.8 million residents.
Speaker after speaker demanded that the hospital be fully funded, pointing out that health care must be considered a human right and not a business venture. Among the speakers were the local Distrcit Leader of the 56th Assembly District, Robert Cornegy, State Assembly member Annette Robinson and community activist, Jelani Mashariki.
Matthew Weinstein, of Brooklyn For Peace, spoke and connected the dots between misguided priorities in Washington, which favors military spending over people's needs, and the local struggles over cutbacks, closings and layoffs. The peace group, which brought members to participate in today's event, handed out a flyer that called on government to "Close down the wars, not Brooklyn hospitals!"
