Jersey City officials joined residents for an impromptu Town Hall about the shuttered Heights University Hospital at Dickinson High School yesterday, which clearly had an angry tone throughout: “This is bull****.”
By Dan Israel/Hudson County View
The meeting was supposed to be a public hearing held by the New Jersey Department of Health (NJDOH) and the State Health Planning Board (SHPB) as part of the certificate of need application filed by Hudson Regional Health (HRH) to formally close Heights hospital.
However, HRH was granted a temporary restraining order by a Hudson County Superior Court judge roughly a half hour before the meeting was set to start, forcing NJDOH officials to vacate the premises, as HCV first reported.
“You’re supposed to have this community meeting before the hospital shuts down, so we can hear from all of you about what services that you need and what the state is going to force to maintain while the hospital shuts down or you find other operators or whatever comes next,” expressed Assemblywoman Katie Brennan (D-32).
State Senator Raj Mukherji (LD-32) noted the meeting was moved from the hospital to Dickinson last minute because HRH refused to cooperate with state officials after their request to withdraw their CN application was denied.
He said the state wanted to have the hearing and rejected their motion to withdraw their certificate of need application because “it was a fiction that they were looking for,” which ultimately lead to the TRO.
“They’ve taken illegal actions to close this hospital without following the legally mandated process by which you are allowed to close a hospital,” exclaimed Mayor James Solomon about HRH.
“Now, this is the Department of Health’s loss because their lawyers are the ones involved, but we are asking our legal counsel if there is anything we can do as a city to step in and aid this legal process on a specific meeting and the absurdity of what HRH is trying to do.”
Solomon also pointed out that Jersey City sought a “Hail Mary court injunction” to keep the hospital closing on March 14th, to no avail, while the Jersey City Planning Board is weighing utilizing eminent domain following a City Council vote.
He added that residents have his commitment to fight “tooth and nail” to make sure residents have the healthcare they need as the city is expected grow in population by 50,000 [the population is currently around 300,000).
“We’re going to use all of our tools to make sure that we get health care back on that site, in the Heights, in a place where all of you can rely on,” Solomon added.
A short while later, Mukherji declared “this is bull****.” He thanked everyone for rallying against the monetization of the views at the site of Heights University Hospital, calling it “a community asset and not a real estate plan.”
He praised the NJDOH for calling out HRH in their withdrawal rejection letter for closing the hospital “without following the process,” slamming HRH for breaking promises not to close the hospital, to keep the ED open, and others made during bankruptcy proceedings.
According to Mukherji, Gov. Mikie Sherrill (D) has been working with him and other elected officials, asking them to “empower her” NJDOH with “even more stringent measures they can take,” including putting the hospital into receivership – or operation by a court-appointed, independent, third party.
“The governor made it very clear right away, the laws that we have now are not good enough. We need to have it be much more painful for people to break the law,” Brennan stated.
Assemblyman Ravi Bhalla (D-32) said that access to affordable healthcare is a basic and non-negotiable human right, and the community has united seeking to achieve that.
“We can’t negotiate with the private sector actors, whether it’s CarePoint or HRH, that violate the law consistently,” he said.
“We need somebody on the other side of the table who we can talk to, who can also come to that conclusion as well and give us a situation where you don’t have …the land owned by one person and the asset operated by the other.”
Ward D Councilman Jake Ephros thanked everyone for coming out to tell the state and HRH that they need healthcare in the heights, even one neighbor who was at the hospital itself redirecting others to the new meeting location.
He also extended his gratitude to the involved healthcare unions for keeping the community informed, calling the situation “unacceptable and infuriating” and to politicize the issue as movie crews film in the now-shuttered hospital.
“This is what happens when we let real estate capitalists take over half of the hospital beds in Jersey City. Money is being made for film production on that site instead of healthcare coming to our community,” he exclaimed.
Ward C Councilman Tom Zuppa kept the fiery tone going.
“How much clearer does HRH have to make it that they do not want to hear from the public? They are afraid of public comment,” he asserted.
“And they’ve been anything but transparent in this process … This is what the systematic dismantling of healthcare in the Heights looks like, and you cannot shake this city down for redevelopment … Healthcare is a human right, and we will have healthcare in the Heights.”
Health Professionals and Allied Employees (HPAE) President Debbie White said that they thought they couldn’t get a worse employer since CarePoint went bankrupt but HRH is “the worst employer in the state.”
She said HRH “blatantly defies laws” and “lays people off without proper notice. They are so awful for any community where they own and run a hospital.”
According to White, Jersey City should have two hospitals with 700 beds for a city its size, but an estimated 1,400 to 1,600 total beds are still needed to account for surrounding communities without hospitals.
Further, over 1000 residents attended the meeting and dozens spoke out against the closure of Heights University Hospital, ranging from personal testimony of services at the facility, to denouncing the actions of HRH, to highlighting how other local hospitals are overrun.
“Coming in to hear about the restraining order, I went, okay, I guess it’s corruption because it’s the law for thee and not for me. This is across the board in this city, in this county, and in this state where we walk up groveling to these companies: ‘Oh, please provide us the things that we need,'” expressed resident Jack McKee.
“And then they screw us every time, and they lie to us. They piss on our leg, and they tell us it’s raining, and we thank them for it. And then they put money in the coffers of the people, who move on to the next thing. I’ve had it.”
Resident Danielle D’Adamo urged officials to consider every option, whether it be a receivership, public acquisition, or non-profit operator.
“This is not just about healthcare. It’s about dignity. It’s about success. It’s about whether a community, like ours, matters enough to be protected. I started my life at Christ Hospital, and I’m asking you, do not let this be the place where care ends for Jersey City.”
