The Politics of Life and Death
Who survives? Who doesn't? It depends on who you are—and where you live.
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WHERE HAVE ALL OUR DOCTORS GONE: A little more than a year ago, the medical staff of St. Vincent's listened glumly while one of their members pleaded to keep the hospital open. The serious overcrowding in Downtown Hospital - and the hours, even days, involved in waiting for beds in the surrounding hospitals - means the State Department of Health's theory that closing hospitals in deep financial difficulty, on the assumption that the remaining ones will be able to survive and provide all the medical service needed, is flawed - yet five more hospitals in Brooklyn are being reviewed for closure.
Photo by Maggie Berkvist.
WHERE HAVE ALL OUR DOCTORS GONE: A little more than a year ago, the medical staff of St. Vincent's listened glumly while one of their members pleaded to keep the hospital open. The serious overcrowding in Downtown Hospital - and the hours, even days, involved in waiting for beds in the surrounding hospitals - means the State Department of Health's theory that closing hospitals in deep financial difficulty, on the assumption that the remaining ones will be able to survive and provide all the medical service needed, is flawed - yet five more hospitals in Brooklyn are being reviewed for closure. |
By George Capsis For more than a year, in the fight to return a hospital, I have found myself reading articles and learning directly from doctors and nurses about the imperfect state of medical services in this city. When Dr. David Ansell, author of “County: Life Death and Politics at Chicago’s Public Hospital," appeared on Leonard Lopate’s WNYC program on July 13, I learned that the whole country is marching in lockstep to what the doctor believes is a flawed system. In 1978, just out of medical school and as a young idealist, Dr. Ansell went to work for Cook County Hospital, designed to take all of Chicago’s poor blacks, Hispanics, immigrants “and other undesirables.” The hospital was condemned in 1927 by the American College of Surgeons, but continued to stay open. (Dr. Ansell and a fellow young doctor took to releasing their frustration in Lincoln Park howling sessions.) As he recalled, “we were overwhelmed by the conditions we met.” What Dr. Ansell discovered then — and what he believes is true today — is that we have a tiered health system. On the lowest level are the poor and uninsured — the result of public policies that treat poor minorities as expendable — followed by those with Medicare and then moving up through the well insured and rich, who can select their hospital, primary care doctor and specialist. He practiced at County from 1978 to 1995, what he termed “Third World patient care” — “Doctors within Borders.” In the 1980s, he ran the walk-in clinic, which in his book he admits was the “most challenging and disturbing job of my career.” |
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Stretchers in the Hallways Why the need for a real hospital is not a fantasy. By Yetta Kurland
Two interesting stories appeared in the press this past weekend concerning healthcare for the people of the Lower West Side of Manhattan. One was a fantasy. The other dealt with reality. The fantasy was an article that appeared in The Villager, over the signature of Lincoln Anderson, the associate editor. He suggested that instead of fighting for a full-fledged hospital to replace the defunct St. Vincent’s Hospital that was illegally closed last year, healthcare advocates should be fighting for a “freestanding” emergency room, with no hospital attached because that would be better for us. He cites as a model of such superior emergency rooms, a facility in Roselle Park, New Jersey, which he claims saves lives and doesn’t kill patients. I suppose that’s meant to be reassuring. But to compare St. Vincent’s Hospital, a large metropolitan hospital, which we lost and are trying to replace, to a small-town emergency unit, which is a satellite to urban hospitals in nearby Elizabeth, is an insult to everyone’s intelligence. |
The Man Who Would Be Mayor
AN EDUCATOR RUNS FOR MAYOR: Publisher Tom Allon (left), once an English teacher at Stuyvesant along with author Frank McCourt (Angela's Ashes), claims teaching was the hardest job he ever had. |
