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Congresswoman Praises NY Governor for Keeping Hospital Open in Caribbean Community

congresswomanCaribbean-American Congresswoman Yvette D Clarke has hailed the decision of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to keep a major hospital in the Caribbean community open for another 30 days.

Interfaith Medical Center, on the border of the Crown Heights and Bedford-Stuyvesant sections of Brooklyn, employs hundreds of Caribbean health-care professionals.

Clarke, the daughter of Jamaican immigrants, who represents the 9th Congressional District in Brooklyn, said the governor’s decision “allows for an agreement that will protect access to health care for the more than 200,000 people who depend on the services available at the hospital.

“We need to establish our priorities, based on our values as a community that believes every person should have access to health care,” she told the Caribbean Media Corporation on Tuesday.

“We cannot allow even a single person to lose access to services,” added Clarke, who had asked Cuomo to work with  federal and state officials to protect the hospital.

“Without these services, each of us is at risk of illness and death,” she added.

Under the agreement between Cuomo and hospital administrators, Interfaith Medical Center will avoid the scheduled closure of ambulance services on Dec. 26, and the scheduled closure of the hospital itself on Jan. 7, 2014.

“Our work must continue. In the next few weeks, we will demonstrate that Interfaith Medical Center remains a critical part of our community, where thousands of people work to provide the highest quality of health care to a population that has in many instances been underserved,” said Clarke, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Small Business, Ethics and Homeland Security.

“I will work with Gov. Cuomo to protect access to health care for the families and children of Brooklyn,” said Clarke, who is also the Ranking Member of the House Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection and Security Technologies.

Source: jamaicaobserver.com

 

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