We disagree with the finding by the Berger Commission report, a.k.a. the Commission on Health Care Facilities in the 21st Century, to target The New Parkway Hospital in Forest Hills as the only hospital in Queens to “close in an orderly fashion.”
Parkway is reorganizing while under the protection of the bankruptcy court and they have raised their occupancy by 60 percent and the amount of Emergency Room patients treated annually to over 15,000. Moreover, being a private not-for-profit hospital they have the lowest cost-per-day in Queens - two compelling reasons to keep Parkway open.
Additionally, Parkway serves a large elderly population estimated at 112,000. It is located between both of the borough's airports, JFK and LaGuardia, is a preferred provider in the TriCare Military Health Care Plan, has a designated burn center and is an official 9-1-1 receiving hospital. It is equipped with a Wound Care Center which has three state-of-the-art hyperbaric chambers.
Parkway must not close, especially if they are going to merge with Mt. Sinai as Parkway's CEO Dr. Robert Aquino has vowed. “As a private hospital we can not only control cost, but also care. Our senior staff makes rounds every day, assuring a level of personalized care not often found in larger institutions,” Aquino said.
Give Parkway a chance to heal itself, financially. The community relies on this institution for its health care and health information. We are sure that Governor-Elect Eliot Spitzer will do the right thing for the hospital, its employees and Forest Hills and ignore the recommendation to close this important resource.
Let The System Work
The recent call by the attorney representing the family of Sean Bell, Norman Siegel, and several community activists for the State to appoint a special prosecutor to oversee the investigation into the shooting death of Bell and wounding of two of his friends in a barrage of 50 bullets is a bad idea at best.
Siegel, a frequent critic of the police and civil rights lawyer said, “People don't have confidence that local district attorneys know how to handle these cases because of their relationship with the cops.”
That is just hogwash. Our district attorney in Queens, Richard A. Brown, has built a good working relationship with both the police and the various communities at large. He can be trusted to be fair, thorough and impartial.
In response to the calls for a special prosecutor, DA Brown said, “There exists no basis in law or in fact for the appointment of a special prosecutor. I have promised a full, fair and thorough investigation - an investigation that will be completed as expeditiously as possible following which the evidence resulting therefrom will be presented to a grand jury. The investigation is moving forward as we speak. In the meanwhile, demands for the appointment of a special prosecutor are neither helpful nor productive – nor are they in any respect justified.”
We agree. Let the DA do his job and let the system work!
