COALITION FOR A NEW VILLAGE HOSPITAL Petition

Sign this petition to our elected officials Demand A Hospital for the Lower West Side!!!

COALITION FOR A NEW VILLAGE HOSPITAL Petition

HANDS AROUND ST. VINCENT’S THIS SATURDAY

Let this response inspire us to action. This Saturday, May 29th at 2pm, we will be inviting all of our elected officials back to hear from experts and advocates who understand and care about our community to let them know that there is no reason why a hospital can't thrive at the old St. Vincent's site!

But we need you there on Saturday to let them know that we will not be dissuaded.

Hands Around St. Vincent's

SATURDAY MAY 29th

2:00 - 4:00pm

Gather at 7th Avenue & 12th Street

JOIN WITH US TO DEMAND A HOSPITAL AT THE SITE OF ST. VINCENT'S

COME SHARE YOUR STORIES AND LET OUR ELECTED OFFICIALS KNOW -
WE NEED A HOSPITAL AT THE ST. VINCENT'S SITE!

We also need your help spreading the word. Here's a PDF of a flyer you can print and distribute to your community. http://www.yettakurland.com/svh/handsflyer.pdf

You can RSVP to the Facebook Event here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=124836660873812&ref=mf

Coalition for a New Village Hospital Responds to Senator Duane’s Forum

Last Friday, Senator Thomas K. Duane held for a forum entitled "How Can We Get Back a Hospital for Our Community". The forum was a direct response to our work marching in the streets, fighting in the court, and organizing to demand that our hospital be restored.

Though some of the panelists invited by Senator Duane attempted to tell us we no longer need a hospital, Eileen Dunn, representing the Nurses Union, made it clear that we must we have a hospital on the Lower West Side and that if we make our voices heard, we can make it happen.

Perhaps most incredible was one of the panelists' response when asked what a resident should do if they were experiencing a heart attack or some other emergency.

Please see the clip below captured by George Sosa, a documentarian who covered this meeting to see what the "health advocate" had to say:

NYS Senator Thomas Duane's Health Care Education Panel 5/21/10 (Clip 1) from g. sosa on Vimeo.

Below is the Coalition’s answers to some of the questions posed at Senotr Duane’s forum.

WHY A HOSPITAL?
An urgent care center cannot meet the public health and safety needs of this community. It will not be able to offer level 1 trauma, an emergency room or related intensive care and hospital beds needed. Nor would it support the complex web of health care this community depended on with St. Vincent's and needs. This includes but is not limited to pediatric, oncology, HIV/AIDS and birthing services. A hospital will also be able to bring income to our City and the State through Federal funding, and other sources, not available to an urgent care center.

WHY THE ST. VINCENT'S LOCATION?
St. Vincent's location is centrally located, and already has hundreds of millions of dollars of infrastructure for a hospital. It will be significantly easier to renovate and reuse and will comport with the look, feel and needs of the community. It is not true that St. Vincent's past debts will adversely impact a new hospital for being at this site. In fact, because St. Vincent's is in bankruptcy, its past debts will be discharged and a new hospital would be able to acquire the property at a potentially greatly reduced price. Ideas to promise a hospital in the future at some other time would only be dangling a carrot that would be lost in vague real estate development schemes and would not put our health and safety first. It would also take years. In the meantime we would have lost the zoning for a hospital at the St. Vincent's site. If we can't open an active hospital at the site of a recently closed hospital, how are we going to open it anywhere else? We should not lose this opportunity.

WHY IS IT POSSIBLE?
Nay-sayers will tell you that it's not possible, that there is too much debt, that no entity is interested and that there are already too many hospital beds in Manhattan. This is far from the truth. First, the debt will be discharged. A hospital will provide more revenue streams than an urgent care center, and properly managed, especially given changes in national health care, could be a significant financial asset to the community. Second, there have been and continues to be many entities interested in opening a hospital at the St. Vincent's site, and it is up to our leaders to bring them to the table and find a way to do this. Finally, while there may be communities lucky enough to have too many hospital beds, we have far too little. In fact, we have none. We have a right to health care, and hospital beds and emergency care. And these vital services must be properly apportioned in all neighborhoods throughout Manhattan, including ours.

Coalition for a New Village Hospital holds Planning Meeting

Over 125 people turned up for Thursday night's planning meeting at Our Lady of Pompeii Church in the West Village. In addition to community members, attendees included representatives of numerous community groups – including PTAs, block associations, civil rights groups, civic associations.

The meeting, chaired by Civil Rights Attorney Yetta Kurland, discussed various approaches to our demand for a new village hospital.

Here's a video of Ms. Kurland explaining the state of the legal challenges:

At this point, we were joined briefly by Julie Menin, Chair of Community Board One. Ms. Menin discussed the joint taskforce of Community Boards 1, 2, 3 and 4 on health care – and committed to work towards a hospital for the lower West Side. She also addressed the stresses already being felt on New York Downtown Hospital (formerly Beekman) in lower Manhattan.

Here she is discussing the role these hospitals play in the event of a homeland security emergency.

After these introductory presentations, the bulk of the meeting was composed of community ideas on how to fight back. Some of the consensus ideas were:

• A campaign of Street Actions at the site of old St. Vincent's (more on this soon)
• Work with the Community Boards to help keep the St. Vincent's site designated for hospital use.
• Outreach to elected officials
• Art and Culture installations
• A complaint to the Attorney General's office was circulated.

Things are developing very quickly, so watch this space...

Planning Meeting, Thursday May 13th

Help plan our next action!

This Thursday, May 13th at 6pm at Our Lady of Pompeii Church located at 25 Carmine Street, corner of Bleeker Street (Map), we'll hold a follow up meeting to our April 30th Town Hall Meeting where Assemblymember Gottfried, Assemblymember Glick and Senator Duane joined us to discuss some of the serious concerns with how St. Vincent's Hospital was closed and equally serious concerns with the fact that we now have no hospital on the lower west side of Manhattan.

There was an incredible turnout of hundreds of community members. Many great ideas came out of this Town Hall discussion and many of you have emailed us since then with other great ideas and thoughts.

We need to hear from you this Thursday as we sit down together to organize our next action and get even more people out.

The only way we will hold those responsible for this illegal closure and get a new hospital for the Village is if we get our entire community to come out so please come on Thursday to help us plan how to do this.

If you're on Facebook, RSVP to the Facebook event.

Video from the St. Vincent's Town Hall on April 30th

Here are some of the highlights from last week's well attended town hall to Demand a Hospital at the St. Vincent's site.

Here's Civil Rights Attorney Yetta Kurland exposing some shady dealings involved with the closure.




And here's Eileen Dunn, RN, a longtime St. Vincent's nurse detailing how St. Vincent's management had failed to file paperwork for years. With the result that St. Vincent's employees have been denied unemployment benefits, social security accrual and more.



Later in the evening, New York State Assemblymember Richard N. Gottfried criticized New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The mayor, who likes to get involved in issues that are important to New York City, did not participate in trying to save St. Vincent's, the Hon. Gottfried said.




Dr. David Kaufman explained the differences between "Urgent Care" facilities and a hospital:





And here's the entire evening, captured by David Jr., a community resident.

Hundreds Turn out to Demand a Hospital at St. Vincent's

Four hundred New Yorkers met at the Hudson Guild on Friday night to demand a hospital at St. Vincent's. Much of the three hour meeting was composed of residents speaking about how much St. Vincent's has meant to them, and how essential a full-service community hospital is to our city.

A panel of experts also spoke, detailing the history of St. Vincent's collapse, explaining impacts on the community and proposing new ways forward. Panel organizers Yetta Kurland and Thomas Shanahan were joined by Miguel Acevedo, St. Vincent's nurse Eileen Dunn RN, St. Vincent's doctor David Kaufman MD, and St. Vincent's patient Jay Kallio.

Elected officials including Assemblymember Richard Gottfired, Assemblymember Deborah Glick and Senator Thomas Duane also spoke and listened to feedback.

Contact your elected officials and Demand a Hospital at St. Vincent's!

Any solution to this crisis will require leadership from our elected officials. We need to let them know that We Demand a Hospital at St. Vincent's! Here are some people to contact and a few sample letters.

Be sure to include your full name and address so they know who's calling.

Dear Mayor Michael Bloomberg:

The lower West side of Manhattan will not be safe without a level 1 trauma care hospital. I believe it will be more expensive to have to shuttle people between two facilities and we will lose federal funds available to a hospital that would not be available to an urgent care center. But most importantly, Mr. Mayor, there is no value you can put on human life. I am writing to demand that you protect our public health and safety and ensure a hospital exists at the site that was St. Vincent’s Hospital.

Email the Mayor at http://www.nyc.gov/html/mail/html/mayor.html, Call him at 311, or write him at City Hall, New York, NY 10007

Dear Governor Paterson:
We need a hospital on the lower West side of Manhattan. An urgent care center will not be able to provide the level of emergency care or the breadth of full health care services our community needs. It would not be able to adequately address any real public health or safety issues if they were to come up. Where is our hospital? I am writing to let you know we demand a hospital in lower Manhattan.

Email the Governor here, Call him at 518-474-8390, or write him at State Capitol, Albany, NY12224

Dear NYS Commissioner of Health Richard F. Daines:

You have a duty to the community in lower Manhattan to make sure a hospital exists here. The Berger Commission determined what hospitals should and should not be closed down, and St. Vincent’s was not chosen to be shut down. This means there is a real and compelling public need for a hospital at this location. I am writing to demand that you make sure this happen in the immediate. Also what happened to St. Vincent’s? You have the power to compel an investigation by the Attorney General’s office to find out why St. Vincent’s lost so much money. I am asking that you do this immediately.

Email the Commissioner at dohweb@health.state.ny.us, Call him at 518-474-2011, and write him at New York State Dept of Health, Corning Tower, Empire State Plaza, Albany,NY 12237

Dear Speaker Christine Quinn (Speaker of the City Council AND Lower West Side's Councilmember):

As you well know, we need a hospital on the lower West side of Manhattan. An urgent care center will not be able to provide the level of emergency care or the breadth of full health care services our community needs. It would not be able to adequately address any real public health or safety issues if they were to come up. I am writing to ask you to encourage the city council to guarantee that the resources and land at the old St. Vincent’s site be adaptively reused for a community hospital. Thank you.

Email Speaker Quinn at quinn@council.nyc.ny.us, call her at (212) 564-7757 and write to her at 224 West 30th St., Suite 1206, New York, NY 10001

Dear Senator Thomas K. Duane (Chair of the NYS Senate Health Committee AND Lower West Side's Senator):
As you well know, we need a hospital on the lower West side of Manhattan. An urgent care center will not be able to provide the level of emergency care or the breadth of full health care services our community needs. It would not be able to adequately address any real public health or safety issues if they were to come up. Also what happened to St. Vincent’s? You have the power to hold a hearing in the Senate Health Committee to find out why St. Vincent’s lost so much money. I am asking that you do this immediately.

Email the Senator at duane@senate.state.ny.us, call him at (212) 633-8052 or (518) 455-2451, and write him at 322 Eighth Avenue, Suite 1700, New York, NY 10001

Dear Assemblymember Richard N. Gottfried (Chair, NYS Assembly Health Committee and West Side Assemblymember):
As you well know, we need a hospital on the lower west side of Manhattan. An urgent care center will not be able to provide the level of emergency care or the breadth of full health care services our community needs. It would not be able to adequately address any real public health or safety issues if they were to come up. Also what happened to St. Vincent’s? You have the power to hold a hearing in the Assembly Health Committee to find out why St. Vincent’s lost so much money. I am asking that you do this immediately.

Email the Assemblymember at GottfriedR@assembly.state.ny.us, call him at 212-807-7900 or518-455-4941, and write him at 242 West 27th Street,New York,NY 10001

Timeline at St. Vincent's Hospital Manhattan

How did this happen? Here's a timeline of the negotiation and deals involved in the closure of our St. Vincent's

St. Vincent's Timeline

View more presentations from NewellNYC.

Myths vs. Truths at St. Vincent's Hospital

Myths vs. Truths at St. Vincent's Hospital

View more presentations from NewellNYC.