Brooklyn residents are frantic over the potential loss of medical-treatment options — and hundreds of local jobs — as the state moves forward with its apparent plan to close major safety-net hospital SUNY Downstate.
SUNY announced last month that it would significantly ramp down operations at and possibly shutter the only state-run hospital in New York City, citing billions of dollars in needed repairs at the 376-bed facility in East Flatbush, as well as an ongoing $100 million yearly operating deficit.
Patients and staff told The Post they don’t totally buy the argument that services at the facility on Lenox Road need to be drastically reduced or possibly eliminated altogether.
“It’s a tiny hospital. They’ve got to save this place, because there are no other hospitals nearby besides Kings County, and I never want to go there. It’s too big, and it’s city-run, and I don’t like city-run things,” Clara Gayle, 52, told The Post outside Downstate.
“I’m not getting any younger, and I’m not moving out of Flatbush. If they shut down Downstate, I’ll have to go to Manhattan [for services],” Gayle said..