Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Queens hospital rally at City Hall

KEEP US OPEN!

Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley:

Dr. James Satterfield, MIH Surgical Director:

And then there was a surprise visitor:

Well he could run, but he couldn't hide from this sign which was right there when he got to the top of the stairs:
(The mayor pretended he didn't see it.)

More photos by nutrichris on Flickr and videos by nutrichris on YouTube.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great sign there, Jerry!

Anonymous said...

Crains: "The hospitals, Mary Immaculate and St. John’s, may still be saved, if politicians and state agencies can come up with enough cash to keep them afloat."

Per the Mayor and the Council, $400 million has been budgeted and approved to acquire all of the Willets Point properties, which is the priority right now. When we're told that funds are unavailable to keep the 2 hospitals afloat, remember that Willets Point has been prioritized higher than the 2 hospitals, and has sucked away all the cash. Nothing left for hospitals; they'll just have to close.

Anonymous said...

Thanks "Italian girl"!

"Bloody" Bloomberg gave it a side glance as he stepped out of his royal limo so as not to look me directly in the eye.

I was particularly interested
in his grace's body language
as he briskly mounted the steps to city hall....very regal!

I imagined him lost for a moment
in a Napoleonic reverie,

"Forget my 3rd term. Just call me Emperor Bloomberg Le Grande"!

P.S.
Hello, Natzli Parvisi
and all you CAU folks out there.

Anonymous said...

Thousands of people will lose their jobs and tens of thousands of people's lives will be put in danger and that prick just walks by with his nose in the air?

IT'S TIME TO DUMP BLOOMBERG!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Hey Anonymous #1:

Let's not forget that Helen Marshall, Melinda Katz, John Liu and Eric Gioia (along with others, but these are the major players) could not wait to upzone Jamaica, Queens Blvd, LIC, Flushing, Willets Point, etc. but none of them bothered to ask where the little things like hospitals would fit into the picture. If any of these twits starts braying about how great it is to stuff more people into Queens after dealing with the loss of not one but 3 hospitals over the course of a few months, may this be their losing factor during their next campaigns.

What a bunch of selfish pigs.

DUMP EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM.

Anonymous said...

Jamaica has already been upzoned and is losing a level 1 trauma center. This is great! How much worse can these morons possibly fuck up Queens?

Anonymous said...

Look, these politicians don't give a damn about whether or not you and I die because the ambulance couldn't get us to the hospital fast enough. All they care about is developer money. While we were constantly yammering away about lack of schools, electrical grid, sewers and hospital beds, these pigs turned a deaf ear because they were lining their pockets with developer money. So screw 'em all. Time for a royal flush of King Bloomberg and his ilk. Time for Queens to get smart.

Anonymous said...

Up zone and over develop.

Then the mayor and his city planners allow the curtailment of vital services to the already under served neighborhoods (perhaps even those that contain a larger proportion of poorer folks or people of color).

Do I detect a spurious agenda veiled in the gentrification process that seems to be headed, for example, to Jamaica?

Do you?

Anonymous said...

Nice to see Liz Crowley and Avella have kissed and made up.

Anonymous said...

If we put all of the emotions aside, the question remains - where are we going to get the funding required to transform both hospitals into viable institutions? By my estimation, the hospitals require about $80-100 million to pay off debt and make significant infrastructure changes including modernization of its diagnostic and therapeutic technologies.

This seems to be beyond the scope of New York State and we need to appeal to federal dollars. But I would like to also make another point. The failure of both hospitals was not just about dollars and cents, but it was also about an administration who failed to create a sustainable vision for the hospitals as it approached a new era in healthcare. The hospitals need and deserve not just money, but also effective leadership.

Anonymous said...

Jerry:
Now that applications for permits have dropped at the DOB and people can't get million dollar loans anymore, City Planning will be rezoning much of Queens. You'll see. They have no reason to ignore the complaints anymore. North Flushing is already underway and Auburndale will soon follow as will other neighborhoods that were put on hold. But what does it matter? The damage was done, wasn't it? I now see tons of new construction sitting there with their "For Sale" signs for months and months until it is usually replaced with a "For Rent" sign. We can thank Bloomie for this mess. Wait until people start leaving the city because there's just no work to be found. There will be empty apartments/houses everywhere. The next few years are going to be rough with property values declining considerably. People who purchased their first home in the last couple of years are going to be really upset.

Anonymous said...

funding can be found in:
1. collect outstanding debt (>85! mio)
2. cancel overhead costs (CRO oppointed get a million $ fee -to close!-)
3. negociate better terms with insurers
4. change the model: performance payed doctors, not salary men
5. identify the by definition 'bleeder services' - EVERY ER in todays world is a bleeder and does not make profit-; discuss the priorities and get funding (like our libraries,schools)

How can you expect a sound business model if you have a wyckoff driven board and a CRO appointed to close?

May I suggest to
1. appoint a new board, small, independent -maybe chaired by the former CRO who did not want to close and developped a survival plan?-
2. seek synchronazation with Obama's job creation plan, improving of Health Care and infra structure. New technologies are available and IT solotions don't care about older buildings. The industry would love to work with this type of hospitals; there are 5000 hospitals in the usa and a lot needs an update, so profile these two and make a blueprint for renovation in partnership with the industry
3. provide funding for mid-term: 3-5 year and continuation of performance driven criteria are met?
4. publish the survival plan on the web and gather intellence and suggestions in order to get committment and the best possible options

Agree?

Anonymous said...

YES.......these are the type of creative ideas that we need to keep these hospitals open. Business as usual is no longer acceptable.

Anonymous said...

are you kidding me? the former CRO is sitting on his million dollar patio in TENNESSEE sipping coffee with his wife on the $8 million his company was paid to run us into the ground. He cared more about fancy dinners and penthouse apartments than he did these two hospitals

Anonymous said...

They can also do what other hospital just at North Shore/LIJ have done - they put in a highly expensive hotel/concierge type private units with one bed rooms. These private rooms help fund the other units such as the emergency room where people dont have money to pay the bill but the hospital is required to treat them.

Anonymous said...

During hard times there were more job opportunities (even if not over plentiful) in the big cities than there were in the more rural areas where ex-patriot city dwellers might look to flee.

I have great faith in the fighting spirit of New Yorkers to bite the bullet and overcome the ills that have been imposed upon them by that spiteful, micromanaging, despot Bloomberg and his cohorts.

But you're right "Italian girl".
In the meantime the landscape is surely littered with the droppings of over development.

May G-d bless us all!
It's going to be a long haul
until the day it's finally over.