The Rev. Al Sharpton, a local state senator and hundreds of demonstrators rallied Thursday at an endangered hospital in central Brooklyn, urging the state not to permanently close the health care center’s doors.
Addressing the crowd, Sharpton decried a dereliction of medical care in the predominantly Black neighborhood of East Flatbush, where the threatened hospital is located.
He called on the state to find funds to save the 342-bed medical center, University Hospital at Downstate, a teaching hospital. The center is on the chopping block under a proposed transformation plan from Gov. Hochul’s administration.
“Whatever needs to be done from the state to the federal level, needs to be done,” Sharpton thundered. “But we will not tolerate you shutting down Downstate!”
“If we don’t do our duty, people will suffer,” he added. “We don’t have much choices in central Brooklyn. So we choose to fight.”
The hospital houses the lone kidney transplant program in Brooklyn and one of two high-level perinatal care centers in the borough, according to the office of state Sen. Zellnor Myrie.
The Downstate medical center sits across the street from the city-run Kings County Hospital Center. Some in-patient services offered by the state-run hospital would be moved into the city hospital under the state’s plan, said Katie Blitz, a spokeswoman for the state university system.
But it is unclear if the kidney program and the perinatal care program would continue to be provided in East Flatbush.
A Hochul spokeswoman, Katy Zielinski, said in a statement that the governor has “committed $400 million to bring high-quality health care to residents.” It described Hochul as the “first governor to focus on the health care needs of Central Brooklyn.”
“At her direction, SUNY will continue to listen to the voices of residents as it finalizes plans to invest in and revitalize Downstate — not close it,” the statement said.
SUNY has launched a community input survey on the fate of the hospital.
But Myrie, a Democrat whose district includes the hospital, has expressed anguish over the path the state has headed down.
In a fiery speech Thursday, he vowed to prevent the closure of the hospital, citing high maternal mortality rates of Black women and subpar health care options in central Brooklyn.
“Our community has been under siege,” Myrie said. “If we have to hold 10 more rallies, we will hold 10 more rallies.”
Nationally, Black women are three times as likely as white women to die of a pregnancy-related cause, according to the federal government. A January state Health Department report said hospital quality is “generally low across Brooklyn and is lowest in communities with a large proportion of Black residents.”
