Could a trauma center finally be coming to Rockaway?: Council calls for city budget to include funds to build trauma center on far-flung peninsula
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In the City Council’s budget response on Monday, they include a call for funding for a trauma center in the healthcare-scarce Far Rockaway community. Courtesy of Episcopal Health Services
By Ryan Schwach
The City Council this week said the city should set aside the money in its upcoming $109 billion budget to build a long-asked-for trauma center on the Rockaway peninsula, a healthcare need advocates have been calling for for nearly a decade.
On Monday, the City Council released its response to Mayor Eric Adams’ 2025 preliminary budget. In it, the Council not only said many of the mayor’s cuts to city agencies and programs were unnecessary, but that the city had more money to spend than the administration initially thought. Some of those extra dollars, they said, should go toward bringing a trauma center to Rockaway.
There hasn’t been a trauma center in the far-flung Rockaway peninsula since Peninsula Hospital closed nearly a decade ago.
Currently, trauma victims in the community are rushed to mainland hospitals, primarily Jamaica Hospital, which is at least 10 miles away for Rockaway residents.
In the Council’s budget response, Council leadership argued that Rockaway’s geographic isolation only increases the need for a facility in the community.
“The Rockaway Peninsula urgently needs a certified trauma facility to care for patients in crisis,” the response read. “Community stakeholders have been strongly advocating for the establishment of a new Level 1 or Level 2 trauma center on a peninsula that is geographically isolated.”
If there would be a trauma center, it is likely it could be placed at St. John’s Episcopal Hospital in Far Rockaway. SJEH is the area’s only hospital, but one with a complicated reputation among members of the community.
Leapfrog, an independent nonprofit that issues hospital grades, has routinely given low grades to St. John’s, including a D grade in the fall of 2023, which was following five consecutive C grades.
Rockaway’s health care issues were exacerbated during and following COVID-19, with some of the neighborhoods on the peninsula seeing the among the highest death rates in the city related to the virus.
“COVID-19 highlighted the inadequate investments in healthcare, as well as the inequitable distribution of health resources, underscoring the impacts it had on low-income New Yorkers, especially in Black and Latino communities and other communities of color,” the Council said. “This is visibly evident in Far Rockaway Queens, where residents no longer have access to a neighborhood trauma center after the closure of Peninsula Hospital more than a decade ago.”
One of the main advocates for the trauma center is the community’s councilmember, Selvena Brooks-Powers, who is also the Council’s majority whip and chair of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
While Brooks-Powers said a trauma center has always been needed on the peninsula, the need has only grown greater as the area grows. Some neighborhoods in eastern Rockway have supported some of the biggest affordable housing projects in the city over the past several years.
“It's irresponsible to not think about the health infrastructure as we're building housing stock, as we're welcoming new families into the community on top of those who live in right now and don't have access to a trauma facility,” Brooks-Powers told the Eagle. “The real challenge is to know that if God forbid, something happens that's trauma related on the peninsula, you have to kind of roll the dice on your survival.”
The lawmaker said that getting the note in the budget response is “huge progress” for a project she has pushed even before her election to the Council.
Queens Councilmember Selvena Brooks-Powers supported the inclusion of funds to build a trauma center on the Rockaway Peninsula in the City Council’s budget response, an issue she has made a priority in her time in office. Photo John McCarten/City Council
“It's really signaling to the administration and to the public that the Council finds that there is a need in terms of funding that exists for this trauma facility, and that we believe that the administration should fund this,” she said.
“It's my hope that through the budget negotiations, and the final budget, that we are able to include funding for this,” she added.
In 2022, Brooks-Powers launched the Far Rockaway Trauma Healthcare Access Task Force, made up of community members, elected officials and developers who worked towards getting the trauma center. The task force recently issued a survey, which said that a trauma center was a major priority.
“The overwhelming response that we found from that survey was recommending wanting to have a level one or two facility,” she said. “So, that's where our focus is for now.”
The survey also showed that 73 percent of respondents wanted a new facility to be built, rather than enhance a pre-existing facility like St. John’s.
St. John’s Episcopal is also on the task force, and supports the goal of getting a Rockaway trauma center.
"St. John's Episcopal Hospital is in support of the City Council's efforts to fund a trauma center in the Rockaways,” said Renee Hastick-Motes, the senior vice president and chief external affairs officer. “As a geographically isolated peninsula, experiencing a community need to have a trauma program, we are poised to partner with the city council and join the discussion.”
Managing the lack of healthcare options in the Council before Brooks-Powers was Donovan Richards, who now serves as the Queens borough president. Richards’ spokesperson said that the BP is still looking to expand access to healthcare in the area, and secured $30 million for a new NYC Health + Hospitals/Gotham Health clinic in Far Rockaway.
“Throughout his time in public service, Borough President Richards has been steadfast in his efforts to expand access to high-quality healthcare in Far Rockaway — a community that has generationally experienced massive disparities in health outcomes and sufficient healthcare coverage,” said the spokesperson.
“To that end, the Borough President was proud to secure a $30 million new NYC Health + Hospitals/Gotham Health clinic to be located in Rockaway Village, and he is proud to support the City Council’s effort to secure a trauma center for Far Rockaway, as we work to further expand the peninsula’s network of high-quality healthcare providers,” the spokesperson added.
The city has until June 30 to pass a final budget.
