He noted that emergency rooms in Queens are overused and overcrowded. “This is a significant infusion of money and we would like to do more, but the state is dealing with a huge deficit,” Paterson said.
The governor was joined by area elected officials, including Borough President Helen Marshall, who has been pushing the state for funds to deal with the healthcare situation in Queens partially brought on by the closing of three hospitals over the past year.
“This is welcome relief to address overcrowding,” Marshall said. “We need more hospital beds.”
She noted that in Queens there are only 1.4 beds per 1,000 residents, compared to Manhattan, with 7.1 beds per 1,000 residents.
The state money will go to:
•Charles Wang Community Health Center, Flushing: $400,000 to install a fire alarm system and 12 exam rooms.
•Damian Family Care Center: $1.6 million to build a new clinic in Jamaica for primary care, HIV, dental and mental health services.
•Flushing Hospital: $4 million to construct an ambulatory care center to expand adult and pediatric primary care and dental services.
•Forest Hills Hospital: $4 million to relocate a hospital-based primary care clinic into a larger location. It will include an urgent care center and an expanded emergency department.
•Institute for Community Living: $657,704 for a clinic next to the Borden Avenue Veterans Residence in Long Island City. It will serve veterans, the homeless and those with behavioral issues.
•Jamaica Hospital: $1,036,731 for expansion of its primary-specialty care, including dental and radiology services at the St. Albans and Hollis Tudor sites.
•Joseph P. Addabbo Health Center: $1.8 million to buy, renovate and equip a site in South Ozone Park to provide primary care and dental services to the community.
•Mount Sinai Hospital: $4 million to expand its emergency department in Long Island City in a new one-story facility.
•New York Hospital Medical Center Queens in Flushing: $4 million to renovate and expand its emergency department.
•Elmhurst Hospital: $4 million to expand outpatient services by creating a women’s health center.
•Queens Hospital: $4 million to expand its geriatric care services, create a wellness center and expand obstetric services in Jamaica.
•Wyckoff Heights Medical Center: $500,000 to conduct four community-based clinical and educational programs, elderly home visits, diabetes self management, asthma education and nutritional intervention in mid-Queens locations.
Mills of NYHQ said the funding is critical to local health care institutions that have had dramatic budget cuts.
Dr. Richard Daines, the state health commissioner, called the money, “a commitment by the state to healthcare in Queens.”
Attending the event was Dr. Peter Campanelli, president of the Institute for Community Living, who said the project to add a clinic near the veterans’ facility couldn’t have gone forward without the state’s infusion of money. Campanelli expects the new facility to open in 2011 and serve 3,200 patients a year.
Although the $30 million is a welcome addition, healthcare officials say more needs to be done to replace the defunct St. John’s Hospital in Elmhurst, Parkway in Forest Hills and Mary Immaculate in Jamaica.
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