Protect Downstate and protect this community

The communities I represent in Central Brooklyn have some of the worst health outcomes in New York. By almost every measure — prevalence of illness, chronic diseases like asthma and diabetes, access to quality health care and average life expectancy — working class, Black and Brown communities like mine suffer from a deep and pervasive health equity gap.

In particular, Black women in Brooklyn have some of the worst maternal health outcomes in the entire state — they are more than nine times likely to die of pregnancy-related complications than their white counterparts.

Generations of Central Brooklynites have also been forced to deal with another harsh reality — a legacy of neglect, disinvestment and sometimes outright hostility from our government. We’ve experienced a history of redlining and segregation, inadequate public services, and even purported “improvements” that serve powerful interests while failing to take our real needs into account. Fighting against this legacy is the reason I ran for office.

So you can imagine my — and my community’s — frustration when these forces that have painfully shaped our community came together in the form of a proposal by the governor to “transform” SUNY-Downstate Hospital — a critical health care institution serving some of the most vulnerable patients I represent. The proposal would indeed “transform” the hospital — by closing it and sending patients elsewhere.

SUNY’s transformation plan would result in shuttering the only state-run hospital in New York City — one of just two regional perinatal centers in Brooklyn, and the only kidney transplant program. Yet the state’s health commissioner admitted to being in the dark about the proposal, explaining he “learned about SUNY’s transformation plan in the media.”

SUNY Chancellor John King has publicly discussed the potential for housing development on the Downstate site — and to be sure, our community does need more housing. But at a recent hearing, the state’s housing commissioner stated she wasn’t “aware of any specifics ... other than what’s been reported.”

And on Feb. 7, SUNY announced an “engagement and visioning process” to “ensure that community-sourced ideas inform SUNY’s plan.” The announcement described a series of focus groups and community surveys, followed by a report detailing findings released in mid-March. As of this writing, no focus group meetings open to the public have been announced.

My community is rightly suspicious of a health care proposal that doesn’t include the health department, a housing proposal that doesn’t include the housing department, and a community engagement process that’s shorter than a monthly MetroCard.

Last month, the Health Department released data showing the extent of Central Brooklyn’s health disparities, and in particular the maternal health crisis. I was gratified to see the governor announce several steps to improve maternal and infant health care in her State of the State address.

But I fear the governor and SUNY’s proposal would make Central Brooklyn’s maternal health care crisis worse, not better. Downstate and Kings County have, by far, the highest occupancy rates for labor and delivery beds in Brooklyn. SUNY’s proposal would merge these two already-strained institutions, combining the labor and delivery departments with the least capacity and which serve the highest-need patients.

It’s troubling to see the governor and SUNY propose a slickly-packaged “transformation plan” that is long on questions and short on details. And the clock is ticking — the governor has asked my colleagues and I to approve this plan by April 1, or forfeit hundreds of millions to address needs at Downstate’s medical schools. I find this choice, on this timeline and in this manner, to be unacceptable.

Having starved our only state-run hospital of resources for decades, Albany is now using the hospital’s poor fiscal condition as the rationale for its closure. This calls to mind a classic Brooklyn expression: chutzpah.

Instead of this closure, we need a substantial investment in improving health care for women, children and all Brooklynites. This means prioritizing accessibility, cultural competence, holistic support services, technological innovation, and community engagement.

With the state’s strong commitment, we can improve prenatal, perinatal and postpartum care for new and expectant parents who have been neglected for too long.

Protecting SUNY-Downstate is personal for me. In 2021, I was hospitalized with severe COVID. As a state senator, I’m fortunate to have excellent health insurance and could have been treated at any of New York’s fine public or private hospitals. I chose Downstate because I knew I’d receive excellent care right here in my community.

In this year’s budget we have a choice to make. We can reduce access to care for the Brooklynites who need it most, or we can make a down payment on turning the statistics around and building a world-class center of excellence for expecting mothers and new babies. The choice is ours.

Myrie’s state Senate district includes SUNY-Downstate Hospital.