Senate Majority Chief Chuck Schumer vowed Sunday to battle “tooth and nail” towards the Biden administration’s plan to shut two Huge Apple hospitals devoted to caring for a whole bunch of hundreds of New York Metropolis veterans.
Schumer (D-NY) introduced he’s beginning a petition drive within the 5 boroughs in opposition to the federal Division of Veteran Affairs making ready to shut two of the Huge Apple’s three native VA hospitals.
“We’re going to battle this proposal tooth and nail. We’re going to put a dagger by way of its coronary heart, and it’s not going to see the sunshine of day,” he stated at a Sunday morning press convention, whereas flanked by conflict veterans and elected officers in entrance of a Veterans Administration hospital in Manhattan.
“These are the individuals who risked their lives for us, and the one factor we stated in return is, ‘You’ll get good healthcare.’ These amenities give good healthcare,” he added. “We’re not going to take them away.
“Who’s going to maintain them? We aren’t going to show our again on these veterans, plain and easy.”
About 210,000 navy veterans dwell within the 5 boroughs, based on town Division of Veterans’ Providers.
The VA blueprint, first reported by The Publish earlier this month, says it might be “discontinuing” companies on the Brooklyn VA web site, and as a substitute set up a strategic collaboration with one other supplier to ship inpatient medical and surgical and emergency division companies. The proposal would additionally shut the Manhattan VA hospital and develop a brand new “pressing care heart” with one other supplier.
The Brooklyn VA hospital is positioned in Bay Ridge and the Manhattan one is at 423 E. twenty third St. adjoining to Bellevue Hospital. A 3rd VA medical heart is positioned in The Bronx, however the facility there would not be affected by the potential change.
Schumer promised to not permit the federal authorities to observe by way of with its plan, labeling it “dastardly.”
“We aren’t letting them do that. It’s a dastardly factor,” he stated. “These of us risked their lives for us.”
“This VA system is lots higher than quite a lot of non-public hospitals the place you need to pay a lot copayments, this, that, and the opposite factor, the place they make you wait, the place they deal with you shabbily, and many others.,” the senator defined. “And if you happen to shut this hospital it’s going to harm each hospital, as a result of who’s going to maintain these of us in the event that they go to the native hospitals that are already overburdened? They don’t wish to go to the native hospitals.”
John Rowan — head of Vietnam Veterans of America who has undergone therapy a number of instances on the Manhattan VA hospital — spoke of the significance of a facility devoted to addressing veterans’ medical wants.
“Everyone that was engaged on me after my surgical procedure right here within the VA have been veterans. That’s one of many keys. They know what we’re. They know what our well being care is all about. They know what our wants are all about,” he stated. “They know what our problems are, having been within the poisonous exposures that we had both in Vietnam or within the burn pits.”
Wendy McClinton, who served in Operation Desert Storm and serves as president and CEO of Black Veterans for Social Justice, added, “For those who shut these amenities, you’re probably not thanking us for [our] service; you’re actually hindering the companies that we gave.”
The plea from Schumer and native vets Sunday got here a day after Mayor Eric Adams stated he plans to ask the Biden administration to nix its plan to shutter the pair of amenities.
“They must be open, and I’m becoming a member of my federal and state lawmakers as a result of they gotta be open,” the mayor stated. “There isn’t any cause that we’re closing these hospitals. We fought earlier than, and I’m going to Washington, DC, and we’re going to battle once more. We want these hospitals open.”
Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-Staten Island/Southern Brooklyn) advised The Publish earlier this month that she was “mad as hell” concerning the plan and promised to battle to maintain them open.
“That is unacceptable,” Malliotakis fumed in a March 8 letter to VA Secretary Denis McDonough.
