Letters To The Editor

Letters from readers are invited and should be sent by regular mail to Times Newsweekly, P.O. Box 860299, Ridgewood, N.Y. 11386- 0299 or by e-mail to info@timesnewsweekly. com. All letters must be accompanied by the writer’s full name and address, which will be withheld upon request. Anonymous letters will not be considered for publication. All letters are subject to editing. The opinions expressed in each letter are not necessarily those of the Times Newsweekly.

Upset with hospital bill veto Dear Editor:

Queens Civic Congress, an umbrella organization for more than 110 community and neighborhood groups representing tenants, co-op and condo owners and homeowners living in every part of Queens, expresses its extreme disappointment at the governor’s veto of the Hospital Closure Planning Act (A8461- C/S5802-A), sponsored by State Sen. Shirley Huntley and Assemblyman Rory Lancman.

Queens legislators, led by Assemblyman Lancman and Senator Huntley, developed this legislation because we need it and shepherded it through the legislature because New York State, and Queens especially, needs the safeguards afforded communities by this sound legislation. It very simply empowers the NYS Department of Health (DOH) to reassure our fellow citizens of what steps DOH will take to ensure that adequate health and hospital care resources for affected communities remain in place.

Queens has experienced the closure of three hospitals within the last year. The Berger Commission found two of these facilities as essential. These closures happen so suddenly and without any adherence to applicable DOH closure regulations.

Members of the communities served by the hospitals received little or no advanced notice of their closure. To this day, we do not know how many individuals lost access to primary care providers. These closures have created critically overcrowded emergency departments in the hospitals that remain. The surge in patients who require admission when inpatient beds remain full and unavailable forces hospitals to treat patients in spaces inappropriate for such care.

The Hospital Closure Planning Act would require a public hearing within 30 days of notice of a hospital’s plans to close, or of its voluntary closure. This would provide the community served by the hospital an opportunity to voice its concerns. Such a fact-finding hearing would provide vital information as the DOH performs its due diligence in reviewing a hospital’s submitted closure plan.

It would also foster transparency since it would provide information to the communities explaining the reasons for any proposed closing. Many community members currently believe that the DOH closed Mary Immaculate Hospital in Jamaica and St. John’s Queens Hospital in Elmhurst despite many DOH statements to the contrary.

Queens Civic Congress finds any decision that impedes the provision of adequate health and hospital resources in our communities unacceptable.

Corey Bearak

President

Queens Civic Congress

Urge participation in 2010 census Dear Editor:

With the decennial U.S. Census near, we must encourage everyone to participate. The census is used to determine representation in Congress and federal aid to local and state government programs and operations, including funding for schools, hospitals and transportation, and is mandated by the U.S. Constitution.

Your participation in the census is required by law, and it takes less than 10 minutes to complete. Census data are used to distribute congressional seats to states, to make decisions about what community services to provide, and to distribute $400 billion in federal funds to local, state and tribal governments each year.

Census data is used to make important decisions in the areas of jobs, economic development, affordable housing, health care and education. For every New Yorker counted in the 2000 census, the federal government spends nearly $2,000 a year, a decisive amount.

Census affects your representation in state and local government, and is used to define legislature districts, school district assignment areas and other important functional areas of government. It defines us as a nation. Data about changes in our community are crucial to many planning decisions, such as where to provide services for the elderly, where to build new roads and schools, or where to locate job training centers.

We must work with all city, state and federal leaders to make sure everyone is counted so our communities receive our fair share. The census forms will arrive in the mail next March, and every one should fill it out and return it. It’s safe, quick, and you will be helping yourself and the entire community.

The 2000 U.S. Census failed to count hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers, and there are neighborhoods and areas right here in our backyards where large numbers of people were not counted in the past, which has robbed us of our fair share of federal resources.

Case workers only visit households that do not mail back census forms. Information collected is confidential and is not shared with law enforcement, immigration, welfare or any government agency, and filling out a form doesn’t increase a person’s chances of being picked for jury duty.

Albert Baldeo

President United Communities Alliance