Oct. 17 St. Vincent's Hospital rally

Oct. 17 rally for a new hospital in Lower West Side - St. Vincent's Hospital - Call to Action

Please join us for a rally on Sunday, October 17, at 2 p.m. We are meeting outside of the main building of the former St. Vincent's Hospital at the corner of 7th Avenue and West 12th Street.

Click here to register to attend the 100 days without a hospital rally.

We want to express to our politicians that the community is united in believing that we need a hospital in the Lower West Side of Manhattan.

St. Vincent's Hospital closed on April 30 under shady conditions, with no notice to the public. In an emergency, every minute counts. Meanwhile, here we are now way past 100 days that the Lower West Side has been without a hospital.

This rally is fully-accessible for the disabled. For the hearing impaired, a transcript of the video follows :

I want to encourage folks to come to the rally on October 17th. We really need a hospital in this neighborhood. Having an Emergency Room close by is very important.

The closing of St. Vincent's was really a disaster for this neighborhood.

Hello, please, you must come to our rally on October 17th in front of St. Vincent's at 2 p.m. We are hoping we'll get 1,000 people -- at least. Your life could count and depend upon having a hospital in our community.

Unless we have over 1,000 people come out on October 17th at 2 p.m., the powers that be and politicians will think that we are accepting this. And that is wrong, because everybody that I talk to knows that it's wrong, and they are very upset over the closing of St. Vincent's Hospital.

We've heard of 45 minute waits for ambulances, to start with, and then trying to get cross-town on 14th Street ?

When you are having an emergency, every minute counts.

Is that enough to convince you that your life depends upon attending this rally. Thank you. I look forward to seeing you there.

Update on St. Vincent's Hospital

NYS Department of Health commissioner Dr. Richard Daines needs to do the right thing.

What does a ‘‘needs assessment’’ mean for us in our efforts to get a hospital at the site of St. Vincent’s ?

First, although the efforts are well intentioned, some have been working to have a ‘‘needs assessment’’ done to prove to the New York State Department of Health that we deserve a hospital in the Lower West Side of Manhattan. But if you look at the law, it is the NYS Department of Health, which needs to prove to us that we don’t need a hospital – not the community that needs to prove to them that we do need a hospital.

We should not be shifting the responsibility away from the NYS Department of Health, but rather pushing them to do the right thing – and remedy what we see as a serious breach in New York State law and a grave threat to public health and safety in Lower Manhattan.

Not only was the hospital not been closed in a safe manner, but the NYS Department of Health is required to continue the services that the hospital provided or go through a formalized procedure to determine that the services are not needed, which would include public input and public notice.

Why is it important to acknowledge that it was a violation of New York State law to shut St. Vincent’s down without a ‘‘closure plan ?’’

Because, according to the law, the closure plan needed first to be approved by the NYS Department of Health, so that it ensured safety not just in the way it was closed, but in the aftermath, including safeguarding records and ensuring continuing services. The closure plan isn’t a thing of the past, it affects community members now, including access to their medical records, and it entitles our community to continued health and medical services.

What have we done to get a new hospital ?

At the City level, after pressure from residents of the Lower West Side, Community Board 2 has passed a resolution that confirms that they will not allow a change in zoning or use for the hospital facility.

This will stop developers from attempting to convert this space into more luxury residential property. Also, we are delighted to read in a recent letter to the Chelsea Now newspaper that New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn “will continue our push for a full service hospital here.” The Community Board and Speaker Quinn are making clear, as powerful parts of the ULURP process, that they will block any attempts to put anything other than a hospital at the site of St. Vincent’s.

What do we still need to do ?

At the State level, we must put pressure on the NYS Department of Health and on its commissioner, Richard F. Daines, M.D, to comply with the law. New York State Senator Tom Duane has gone on record as saying a hospital is achievable, and Assemblymember Richard Gottfried has also pledged his support. Sign our petition to add your voice to this important cause.

Keeping the site of St. Vincent's zoned for a hospital

Maintaining the zoning of the site of St. Vincent's Hospital is one way to attract another hospital corporation to 'adaptively reuse' the existing infrastructure already available at St. Vincent's former main building.

Why Are They Closing St. Vincent's Hospital? (Pt.10) - Hands Around St. Vincent's (Excerpt) from g. sosa on Vimeo.

St. Vincent's E-mail Campaign

Take action now to establish a full service hospital for Lower Manhattan.

Please copy and paste the addresses and the suggested message into an e-mail. Make any modifications, to personalise your own communication.

To :

mayor@nyc.gov; speakerquinn@council.nyc.gov; dohweb@health.state.ny.us; duane@senate.state.ny.us; GottfriedR@assembly.state.ny.us; arroyo@council.nyc.ny.us

Subject :

Coalition for a New Village Hospital

Suggested message :

Ladies and Gentlemen :

We need a hospital on the Lower West Side of Manhattan. The proposal to replace St. Vincent's Hospital with an 'urgent care center' is insufficient ; such a center will not be able to provide Level 1 trauma care, emergency rooms, critical healthcare attention, or hospital beds. Such a center would also be unable to adequately address any real public health or safety issues, were they to come up. Right now, there is no Level 1 Trauma Center below 14th Street in Manhattan, which we all know is a high risk security area. Everyone in our community is worried that people's lives are now in jeopardy, because of the longer time it will take them to be transported to the emergency rooms of alternative hospitals. There is no value we can put on human life. I am writing to you to let you know that our community is organising, and we demand a hospital in lower Manhattan.

Yours sincerely,

( If you think of new addresses to be included, or any changes that should be made, please post a comment on this blog. )