(Kingston, NY) – Today Assemblymember Kevin A. Cahill (D-Ulster, Dutchess) joined other local officials in raising concern over layoffs and cuts to service that Westchester Medical Center has imposed on the Kingston Community. The inpatient Behavioral Health and Detox unit was moved to Poughkeepsie under the guise of increasing COVID capacity, which now WMC is attempting to make permanent. This move has been followed by a round of 41 nursing staff layoffs announced last month.
“The actions of Westchester Medical leadership have been absolutely jarring. While our community is reeling from the opioid crisis, they cut addiction services. After last year praising their staff as heroes for their response to the Pandemic, now they decimated their ranks. While their CEO and other high level executives located three counties away make millions of dollars each year, our community continues to see the destruction of our local health care system. This is just the latest of many breaches of faith and direct violation of their operating agreement. Before it’s too late, they should be held accountable. New York State Department of Health: we are talking to you,” said Cahill.
Following the proposed cuts in behavioral health services, Assemblymember Cahill and then Senator Jen Metzger wrote a letter to Dr. Howard Zucker, Commissioner of the Department of Health urging them to reject this proposed cut, highlighting that the Certificate of Need granted to operate Kingston Hospital explicitly calls for such mental healthcare. After that and several other attempts to prod the Department into action, still nothing is being done.
“I am so sorry that we have to continue the fight, not just for our behavioral health and detox services, not just the forty-one people who just got laid off, but we have to preserve and we have to restore healthcare for this community. Let’s be perfectly clear, when Westchester Medical Center received approval from the Department of Health to be affiliated with Kingston and Benedictine Hospitals with the intent to restore, rejuvenate and refresh healthcare in this county, not destroy it. And what we have seen from the day they set foot in this county was the destruction of community healthcare. That has to stop,” concluded Cahill.
Assemblymember Kevin A. Cahill Assembly District 103
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