Focus On Health : Anti-Gay Bias Killing : No St. Vincent's Hospital For Victim

A Young Man Dies Before He Makes It To Beth Israel Hospital ; Politicians Decry Bias Killing, But Ignore Closing of St. Vincent's    Since St. Vincent's Hospital Closed, NYC Refuses To Disclose EMS Transport Times     Early this morning, Mark Carson, 32, was shot two blocks from the former site of St. Vincent's Hospital.  Mr. Carson was transported to Beth Israel Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival, according to The New York Times.    New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn issued a statement in which she said, in part, "I stand with all New Yorkers in condemning this attack."  But Speaker Quinn failed to mention whether the man's life could have been saved if St. Vincent's was still open.  Ever since Speaker Quinn refused to protect the zoning of the former site of St. Vincent's to allow for only a replacement hospital, the community has been left in the dark about the impact of the closing of the only Level I Trauma Center and full-service hospital in Lower Manhattan. Many activists have made requests for the impact on EMS transport times following the closing of St. Vincent's, but thus far neither the Speaker's office nor New York City EMS have provided information about the impact on EMS transport times caused by the closings of ten full-service hospitals in New York City since 2006, St. Vincent's included. On 20 July 2011, community activist Yetta Kurland asked EMS Chief Abdo Nahmod for disclosure of "transport times" in the following video (at 2:30).  See :  Chief Abdo Nahmod calls Rudin Plan for St. Vincents a ''Geographical Nightmare'' Chief Nahmod told an untruth (beginning at about 2:00) during this special Community Board 2 subcommittee meeting when he said that both EMS response and EMS transport times were available online.   Watch video taken on 29 January 2012 of a Beth Israel Hospital ambulance stuck in traffic -- right in front of the shuttered St. Vincent's Hospital (at approximately 1:00). See :  Abdo Nahmod - St. Vincent's EMS Downtown 911 Response Time Disaster - Call Christine Quinn Indeed, Chief Nahmod called the closing of St. Vincent's a "geographical nightmare" in the above video (beginning at approximately 3:06). Later, a group of activists submitted a written demand in person to Speaker Quinn on 13 March 2012, as documented on a blog by Suzannah B. Troy. According to Ms. Troy, Speaker Quinn never answered this request for information. See :  Christine Quinn Meeting Talking Points Then, I submitted a request on 24 June 2012 to New York City, asking for both EMS response and EMS transport times for the Lower West Side of Manhattan, the area formerly served by St. Vincent's.  On 30 July 2012, the Fire Department declined to provide any statistics on EMS transport times. See :  FDNY Refuse to Release EMS Transport Times According to the FDNY letter, the city does not track EMS transit times, which is an untruth, based on Chief Nahmod's statements at the 20 July 2011 special Community Board 2 subcommittee meeting.  Not only that, but New York City used to track both EMS response and transmit times, and these times were combined to calculate a meaningful metric of EMS responsiveness. According to a 2006 policy report by former Comptroller Bill Thompson, this combined metric was referred to as the Average Ambulance ER Turnaround Time.  For Manhattan, the average time it took in November 2006 for an ambulance to respond to and transport a patient to the nearest hospital wasover 30 minutes ! See :  2006 12 21 Bill Thompson Comptroller Hospital Closing Report (Berger) The bias murder of Mr. Carson is tragic and must rightly be condemned.  But residents in all areas in New York City, which were once served by the ten hospitals that have closed since 2006 (when Christine Quinn became Speaker of the City Council) deserve answers, as well.   How many lives have been lost, because of the collapse of so many full-service hospitals in New York City ?    How much worse has the Average Ambulance ER Turnaround Time become as a result of the closing of ten full-service hospitals in New York City ?   Could Mr. Carson's life had been saved, if, two blocks away from the scene of his violent attack, St. Vincent's Hospital was still open ?   Why don't more politicians support a single-payer healthcare system, so that all hospitals could be funded to fully meet the healthcare needs of their patients ?

Richard J. Sheirer died in January 2012. He lost precious time from his life being transported to Beth Israel Hospital, even though he was 5 blocks away from the former site of St. Vincent's. On January 19, 2012, Richard Sheirer died a few blocks from St. Vincent's Hospital.  According to the report of his death in The New York Times :  "Thomas Von Essen, the former fire commissioner, said that Mr. Sheirer, who lived on Staten Island, had chest pains while driving to his job and pulled over at West 14th Street and Tenth Avenue, where he dialed 911 for help. An ambulance crew arrived at about 9:10 a.m., officials said, and took Mr. Sheirer to Beth Israel Medical Center, where he died." In an editorial for The Huffington Post, the former mayoral candidate Tom Allon wrote :    "The City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, whose district includes St. Vincent's, and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer (both presumptive mayoral contenders in 2013) have done nothing to try to fill the gap formed by the closing of St. Vincent's Hospital in the West Village." In Mr. Allon's mayoral campaign, healthcare activists found reason for hope, precisely because Mr. Allon spoke like a leader by calling for the return of a full-service hospital to replace St. Vincent's. This is how he concluded his editorial :  "Mayor Bloomberg, Speaker Quinn, Public Advocate DeBlasio and Borough President Stringer : do your job ! Bring a hospital and full service emergency room back to the West Village. "Our city can't wait." Read More : A Downtown Health Crisis Caused by Politics