Provide the funding and administration to restore and upgrade SUNY Downstate University Hospital to a sound financial status as a community-based public hospital supporting both the SUNY Downstate Medical School and its surrounding Brooklyn community.
Why is this important?
For several years SUNY Downstate's University Hospital administration has been making poor decisions, including purchasing a private hospital called Long Island College Hospital which had been running a deficit for 17 years. The results of chronic under-funding, mis-management, and that ill-advised purchase have been followed by the real threat of financial bankruptcy for the hospital, which would mean loss of support for their public medical school and a total loss of services to the surrounding Brooklyn community. New York State's Legislature and Governor should provide the funding and administrative expertise to rescue SUNY Downstate University Hospital from this disastrous situation and support and upgrade it as a needed public component for its associated public medical school and for the surrounding community.
