Provides for the financing of emergency room facilities in two hospitals in each borough by the New York city health and hospitals corporation

Title of bill

An act to amend the New York city health and hospitals corporation act, in relation to the financing of acute care or emergency room facilities

Purpose

To provide for the financing of emergency room facilities in two hospitals in each borough by the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation.

Summary of provisions

This legislation amends Section 6 of § 1 of Chapter 1016 of the Laws of 1969, the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation Act, by adding a new subdivision 8 to provide that the corporation shall finance the operation of at least two acute care or emergency room facilities which are located in two separate hospitals in each borough within the city.

Justification

The New York City health and hospitals corporation act was adopted in 1969 and declared that "the provision and delivery of comprehensive care and treatment of the ill and infirm, both physical and mental, are of vital and paramount concern and essential to the protection and promotion of the health, safety and welfare of the inhabitants of the State of New York and the City of New York." It further provided that the New York City health and hospital corporation should be created to provide such health and medical services and health facilities. That corporation currently has at least 20 facilities under its jurisdiction including: Kings County Hospital, Woodhull Medical and Mental Health Center, and Coney Island Hospital in Brooklyn; Harlem Hospital Center and Metropolitan Hospital Center in Manhattan; Jacobi Medical Center and North Central Bronx Hospital in the Bronx; as well as Elmhurst Hospital Center and Queens Hospital in Queens.

Staten Island is a borough of nearly 500,00 people without a single NYC HHC hospital to meet the needs of the residents, as proclaimed by the intent of the New York City Health and Hospital Corporation act. The private facilities on Staten Island cannot handle the burgeoning population on Staten island without additional resources.

This legislation requires the City of New York to accept the responsibility it was charged with more than 35 years ago and has neglected to date: the care and treatment of the ill and infirm on Staten Island. It will require the City to provide funding for at least two hospital emergency rooms in each borough (just as each other borough has at least two such facilities). The bill requires the City to merely provide the funding so that the City could pay the existing hospitals on Staten Island to help expand their emergency rooms to meet the needs of the people. It does not require the HHC to build two hospitals. The legislation also mandates that at least one of the members of the health and hospitals corporation reside in each Borough. While that is the current makeup of the Board, there is nothing currently in place to mandate such a common sense requirement.

Legislative history

2008: S.3033 - Reported to Finance/A.3380 - Reported to Ways & Means 2007: S.3033 - 3rd Reading Calendar/A.3380 - Reported to Ways & Means 2006: A.5371 - 3rd Reading Calendar/A.8289 - Referred to Corporations, Authorities and Commissions

Fiscal implications

None. EFFECTIVE DATE : Immediately.