By DIANE S. WILLIAMS

Three hundred miles south, a death knell rang out for District of Columbia General Hospital, the first and only public hospital in our nation’s capital.

Its sound reverberated in New York City May 8 as the Commission on the Public’s Health System released a report charging that New York City hospitals are also on the critical list.

They are so sick, says the study, that they cannot help themselves — nor the ill and injured who turn to them with no place else to go — without a speedy infusion of aid from the city.

To stop the mayor from effectively pulling the plug on public hospitals and clinics, DC 37 has united with a coalition of labor unions representing health care employees, community leaders, clergy, and CPHS, a watchdog group.

“Our members work in the hospitals and live in the communities they serve,” DC 37 Deputy Administrator Zachary Ramsey said at a May 8 meeting. “The public health system is our safety net, and we are fighting to keep this system alive.” DC 37 represents more than 17,000 HHC employees, including clerical staff in Local 1549, hospital aides in Local 420 and members of several other locals.

“Sinking to the Bottom Line,” a study by CPHS director Judy Wessler and Linda Ostreicher, reveals the dire effects years of mismanagement, understaffing, underfunding and layoffs have had on the HHC’s public hospitals and clinics.

Mission failure
The report confirms that low-income and immigrant New Yorkers don’t receive the same medical care as citizens who can afford private hospitals. It raises serious questions about the city’s failure to uphold its mission to provide quality care for the sick, regardless of race or ability to pay.

And by observing nationwide trends, the study points to methods New York could use to restore good health to its hospitals and bring them back from the brink of bankruptcy.

“The report is absolutely true,” said James Butler, president of Municipal Hospital Employees Local 420. “Without adequate staffing, patients no longer get a hot breakfast in the morning nor a bedpan in the middle of the night.”

HHC’s 25 percent staff reduction since 1994 means fewer patients are admitted and their stays are shortened.

“The price of making profit the bottom line,” said Ms. Wessler, “is that community needs are ignored and hospital staffs are downsized.”

The HHC’s $210 million deficit leaves its network of care facilities unable to serve the poor and uninsured who depend on public hospitals for free medical care. City hospitals care for 18 percent of the sick, but almost half those patients are uninsured, and the city refuses to reimburse HHC for such fast-growing expenses.

“The city’s public health system has collapsed,” said David Jones, head of the Community Services Society, “because of the lack of financial support from the mayor and the lack of good leadership on the part of HHC head Dr. Luis Marcos.”

Labor leaders said the issue of maintaining quality public health care has become a touchstone in the upcoming elections. “The solution lies with a better mayor,” said Mr. Butler, “and hiring more full-time hospital workers.”

“It’s about people,” Mr. Ramsey added, “not the bottom line.”