12 APRIL 2, 2020 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
COVID tragedies show need for more hospitals
Elmhurst Hospital in Queens became
a tragic marker this week
in the city’s ongoing fi ght against
the coronavirus. In a single 24-hour
period, 13 patients there died.
Accounts of the situation at
Elmhurst Hospital are quite grim. A
physician at the medical center said
the facility was hit with “a tidal wave”
of patients, and there just aren’t
enough beds to accommodate them
all.
“The only beds we’ve been able to
free up are people who have died,”
that physician told THE CITY.
For most of western Queens,
Elmhurst Hospital has been the only
place for local residents to get emergency
care. It wasn’t always like that.
Three hospitals in Queens closed in
six months between 2008 and 2009:
Parkway Hospital in Forest Hills, St.
John’s Queens Hospital in Elmhurst
and Mary Immaculate Hospital in
Jamaica. The cause of death was essentially
the same: a terminal case
of massive debt that no one could
repay.
For the borough, the triple hospital
closure added pressure on Elmhurst
EDITORIAL
THE HOT TOPIC
STORY:
‘It’s not fair’: Assistant principal at
The Mary Louis Academy dies from
coronavirus
SUMMARY:
An assistant principal at The Mary
Louis Academy in Jamaica has died
due to complications from COVID-19.
Joseph Lewinger, 42, served as the
school’s assistant principal of student
life but also taught, coached and ran the
athletic department during his 20-year
career.
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Patients wait to get tested outside of Elmhurst Hospital. Photo courtesy of REUTERS/Stefan Jeremiah
Hospital, as its emergency department
usage went up 39 percent between
2009 and 2014. Its reliance has
not eased even with more aff ordable
health insurance and the advent of
urgent care centers.
The hospital situation in Queens
is not isolated to the borough. It’s a
refl ection of the ongoing health care
problems facing the city, state and
country.
In the near term, Governor Andrew
Cuomo says the state needs 140,000
hospital beds to treat coronavirus
patients. Normally, the state has
53,000 hospital beds. Imagine that for
a second: 53,000 hospital beds for a
state with a population of 19.5 million
people.
New York needs to triple its hospital
capacity to meet the coronavirus crisis.
But when the crisis is over — and
it will end eventually — we will revert
back to the same hospital system that
we had before that was understaff ed
and under-equipped before the
coronavirus showed up.
Hospitals are not seen as moneymakers
in a for-profi t healthcare industry,
yet they are no less a necessity
for public health. We’re going to have
to build more permanent hospitals,
hire more doctors and nurses, and put
more people to work to keep us safe.
And if the city and state have to do
it and take on the costs, so be it. It’s
the kind of public works that will be
necessary to restart our economy in
the post-coronavirus era.
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