Nobody is surprised that the closing of St. John’s and Mary Immaculate hospitals is already having an impact on health care in Queens.
Forest Hills Hospital said it has seen a 30 percent increase in admissions and the hospital is operating at 104 percent capacity. New York Hospital Queens said 140 additional patients are coming through its doors each day. And Jamaica Hospital said the emergency room that was operating at above capacity before the hospitals closed has undertaken emergency construction.
Queens is facing an impending health care crisis if it is not experiencing one already. Go to any Queens hospital emergency room with something less than a life−threatening condition and expect to wait hours.
The wait will only get longer. The day may soon come when the Queens hospitals will have to turn patients away or send them to Long Island.
Allowing two hospitals to close was a mistake that will affect the borough’s quality of life. The waste involved in shutting down these facilities and the burden that has been placed on other facilities is unacceptable.
Gang Insanity
Two young men, neither old enough to legally buy a drink, were gunned down last week as they stood outside a Corona bar. Witnesses say a hooded shooter stepped out of the shadows and opened fire on his victims, who tried to run.
According to police, the victims, Juan Gonzalez, 20, and Edgar Fernandez, 19, were members of a small gang called Trinitarios. Both young men recently became fathers. The police theorize the gunman is a member of the Latin Kings and the shooting was an act of revenge for an earlier shooting.
The gang madness has to stop. The Crips, Bloods, Latin Kings and dozens of offshoots talk about loyalty, a code of honor and brotherhood. But the actions of this shooter, who covered himself with a hood and fired a barrage of bullets into his victims’ backs, shows these gangs for the heartless and brainless cowards they are.
The kind of violence that took the lives of these young men is bragged about in a hundred rap songs. The radio stations that play these songs help promote this culture of gang violence. They share in the responsibility for the tragic deaths of Edgar and Juan.
