ST VINCENT'S HOSPITAL: SAVE JOBS, SAVE LIVES

Here's an e-mail we received from a reader in response to our " Wanna Save St. Vincent's Hospital? " post:

Dear Mr. Ferrara:

First thank you for your efforts on behalf of saving St. Vincent's Hospital. I signed the petition letter to Commissioner Daines on your Blog. I also signed Speaker Quinn's petition, wrote City Council and as a result of your efforts sent the following letter to the Commissioner:

Robert W. Quinn

Philadelphia, PA

February 11, 2010

Richard Daines, Commissioner

New York State Department of Health
Corning Tower
Empire State Plaza
Albany, NY 12237

Re: Saving St. Vincent's Hospital 

Dear Mr. Commissioner:

 

I signed the City Council President Christine Quinn's petition letter to the State, in support of keeping St. Vincent's fully operational - which had been forwarded to me by several New York city friends and my doctors who practice and have admitting rights there.

 

Though I am not a New York resident all my doctors are there and I have been cared for by them for nearly 30 years.  All of them, as I noted above, practice at or have admitting rights to St. Vincent's. I am not indigent (not yet anyway) and have paid for my care there over the years, which has been excellent and importantly "compassionate".

 

I have had my life saved by the excellent doctors, surgeons and specialists on call at St. Vincent's more than once. Even though I live in Philly, because of the quality of real "care" as opposed to just "treatment" I travel to St. Vincent's and utilize both staff and admitting physicians in the monitoring and treatments for my melanoma and two other life threatening diseases I struggle with.  I utilize the facilities of both the main hospital (where I have had numerous surgeries) and the Cancer Center.

 

I remember how on 9/11/2001, I  was at St. Vincent's for my quarterly CT scan and as the news hit I stood on the front line with the doctors, nurses, orderlies and others, as they waited anxiously to receive and treat the victims - who sadly did not arrive.  But what if there were survivors then or ARE the next time disaster strikes Manhattan?  Will you be caught unprepared like Haiti? With no major medical and Class 1 Trauma Center facility situated at the heart of where a strike is still most likely to occur?

 

St. Vincent's is more than a community asset it is a vital element of our overall security for NY and the nation in this regard. You must fight to not only preserve it, but strengthen it for our protection, and the nation's ability to respond to citizens needs when facing national threats.  The upgrading and financial support of St. Vincent's seems to me to be an excellent candidate for stimulus funding - creating jobs, saving jobs, and saving lives.

 

Tell the Governor, the legislators, NYC council, the Health Department and whomever has the power and guts to stand up for the little people versus the insurers and creditors (who want the real-estate "cash out value" of this institution), when something like 9/11 happens again and there are survivors who die because there is no St. Vincent's to receive them, their deaths should then be on their consciences.

 

Sincerely,

 

Robert W. Quinn

 

Cc: Christine C. Quinn, Speaker, City Council of New York

 

# # #