As CUNY faculty and staff living in Brooklyn, you may already be aware of the recent troubles ay Brooklyn’s only medical center: SUNY’s Downstate Medical Center. First, Downstate was targeted for privatization, and then the institution merged with former Victory Memorial Hospital (now SUNY Downstate Medical Center at Bay Ridge) and acquired Long Island College Hospital. Both institutions were millions in debt and facing bankruptcy before being acquired by Downstate.

Now, Downstate Medical officials have announced a restructuring plan that is expected to include the loss of necessary health care services and significant job cuts. This plan could leave thousands of Central Brooklyn patients without vital health care services and hundreds of health care workers out of work.

Downstate’s College of Medicine graduates hundreds of doctors – many of them physicians of color – each year. More than 80 percent of Downstate alumni remain in New York and provide vital care services to patients in New York City, particularly in Kings County. Downstate provides care for nearly 400,000 patients each year.

PSC’s sister union United University Professions (UUP) has been waging an aggressive campaign to save jobs and health care services at SUNY Downstate.  PSC members are standing up for our colleagues at SUNY, as they have done for us in the past.

Please sign this UUP petition and share it with/forward it to your colleagues and friends in Brooklyn.