(BROOKLYN, NEW YORK) - A crowd of more than 1,200 Doctors, Nurses, Hospital Workers and Community Members joined Union Members and Elected Officials to shut down a section of Clarkson Avenue across from State University of New York (SUNY) Downstate University Hospital this week to loudly express their support for keeping Downstate open and condemn the Governor’s plan to close it.

United University Professions (UUP), the Nation’s largest Higher Education Union, hosted the Brooklyn Needs Downstate rally.

UUP was joined by other National and Statewide Labor Leaders from the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the New York State AFL-CIO, New York State United Teachers (NYSUT), Public Employees Federation (PEF) and the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA).

The rally drew Faculty and Staff from Downstate, Residents, Medical Students, Patients and Community Members who gathered in solidarity with UUP to show Governor Kathy Hochul why she needs to rethink her plan to close SUNY Downstate Hospital.

“It has been about a month since SUNY Chancellor King announced the plan that he and Governor Hochul concocted in secret to close SUNY Downstate Hospital,” UUP President Fred Kowal told those attending the packed rally. “In that time, thousands of people have shared their collective outrage over the ridiculous plan.  Rather than acknowledging the overwhelming response in support of keeping SUNY Downstate open, SUNY launched a series of disingenuous community engagement forums, while at the same time, the Governor has plowed ahead with her plan to close SUNY Downstate Hospital.  We should expect more from our Governor.  The people of Brooklyn deserve better than this.”

AFT President Randi Weingarten said: “Closing SUNY Downstate isn’t just a blow to the Brooklyn Community.  It’s a slap in the face to the Health Care Professionals who have been keeping New Yorkers healthy for years.  Closing it also means shuttering a hospital in a predominantly Black and Brown Community, and a college that trains Nurses, Doctors and other Health Care Professionals to care for patients.  New York needs Downstate.”

A group of Brooklyn faith leaders spoke at the rally, as did several Brooklyn-area State Legislators.  The speakers noted decades of neglect and disinvestment by the State have threatened patients’ access to equitable, high-quality health care services in Brooklyn.

Union Leaders called for the Governor to immediately stop the closure plan and convene an inclusive and deliberative public process in which the community and all other stakeholders are meaningfully engaged.

This process, they said, should focus on developing a sustainability plan for Downstate that maintains the hospital as a free-standing facility that can provide core specialty services and other critical health care services the Central Brooklyn Community needs and deserves.

An understanding of the care provided, patients served, and the needs of the community should inform the State’s decisions, including data released by the New York State Department of Health on February 1st as part of a legislative mandate to study health care in Brooklyn.

The data found residents in Brooklyn, especially low-income residents, and People of Color, have poor access to health care services.

Closing SUNY Downstate hospital will decrease access to services for tens of thousands of people in Central Brooklyn alone, the speakers at the rally said.

UUP also slammed the State’s plan to leave SUNY Downstate out of the Federal Government’s Section 1115 waiver funding to bail out cash-strapped hospitals.

Under a part of this plan, $2.2 billion is provided to struggling hospitals in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Westchester County.

SUNY Downstate, the only state hospital in Brooklyn, will not see even a dollar of that funding.

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.

In addition, 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.

To Read This Labor News Story In Its Entirety, Go To: Press Release | More than 1,200 Frontline Workers and Reverend Al Sharpton Rally With Faith and Union Leaders, Elected Officials at SUNY Downstate Hospital (uupinfo.org)

Click Here to Download Video From the Rally

Photo Courtesy Of UUP’s Facebook Page.