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General News: Resident Presents Petition About Hospital
September 15, 2009
A Cornwall resident appeared at the Cornwall town board meeting on Monday night to present a petition with more than 2,200 signatures that calls on St. Luke’s Cornwall Hospital to make the Cornwall campus ‘a fully functional hospital.”
St. Luke’s Cornwall hospital announced in June that it would reduce the number of patient beds in Cornwall from 37 to 17, including those in the intensive care unit. In July, the Cornwall town board sent a letter to the hospital stating its opposition to a reduction in the number of patient beds.
Pamela Donato said she began gathering signatures last month because she cares about keeping Cornwall hospital as a community hospital. She said that she asked 28 businesses to place the petition and only two refused. She noted that the people who signed it include ‘people from all walks of life.”
Judi Stokes, a spokeswoman for St. Luke’s Cornwall hospital, explained in a written statement that the hospital is making changes to maintain its financial stability and fulfill its mission to care for the community. “We understand this can be an emotional issue, especially for those who are not well versed in the complex realities of operating a hospital in today’s harsh economic climate,” Stokes wrote.
Another passionate opponent of the hospital downsizing, Dr. Bambino also addressed the town board of Monday. Bambino, a staff physician at the hospital, said he had not been given prior notice that the hospital planned to reduce the patient beds and the intensive care unit in Cornwall and that the reduction in acute care concerned him very much. “What we need is a guarantee that our hospital is going to be fully adaptable to the problems we face in the 21st century,” he told the town board. “and what we have now is not acceptable.”
Stokes disagrees with Bambino’s assessment of the Cornwall intensive care ability, pointing out that patients will stay in a ‘universal bed” that increases patient care. “Rather than deliver ICU care in a separate ward-like unit, all patient rooms in Cornwall are now private, each bed is equipped to monitor patients at various stages of illness, including intensive care, and staffing is adjusted accordingly,” Stokes replied.
Donato says that she expects to present the petitions to the board of directors of St. Luke’s Cornwall hospital, as well as to the town boards of New Windsor and Highland Falls. The petition calls on the hospital to restore the number of beds to at least 25 and the number of ICU beds to five, with the potential for a later increase. “We will not settle for less and we urge you to take action now before the situation becomes dangerous and life-threatening,” the petition reads.
Comments:
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I'm having a really hard time squaring 2,200 petition signatures demanding better service from our local hospital, with the general skepticism (locally) to President Obama's healthcare initiative, which was recently debated at Munger Cottage, where approx. 120 people attended. It's very telling to witness this public question of trust in a corporate model vs. that of a government model. And yet, where the rubber meets the road, people seem to reflexively side with the corporation. And that's why I'm having trouble understanding the seeming inconsistency of this outraqe. At it's essence, any corporation exists to make a profit. Yet most Americans cherish what they consider to be a birthright in the New Deal programs initiated by FDR.
posted by Rick Gioia on 09/15/09 at 10:58 PM
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It's a kind of NIMBY mentality. It's OK for other communities to have insufficient hospital services, but it's not OK when it's my community. Unfettered capitalism is great, except when corporate profit seeking affects me. Then I want someone (the local government?) to intervene. Socialism for me, capitalism for everyone else.
posted by Carlotta Shearson on 09/16/09 at 10:40 AM
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