Queens pols call on state to fund long-desired Far Rock trauma hospital
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New York City Mayor Eric Adams joined elected officials including City Couuncilmembers Lynn Schulman, Adrienne Adams and Selvena Brooks-Powers, and State Assemblymembers Khaleel Anderson and Stacey Pheffer Amato, called on Governor Kathy Hochul to allocate money for a trauma center in Rockaway on Friday. Eagle photo by Ryan Schwach
By Ryan Schwach
Queens electeds and locals want the governor to help fund a potential new trauma center on the far-flung Rockaway peninsula.
Officials from both sides of Rockaway rallied on Friday – briefly alongside Mayor Eric Adams – and called on Governor Kathy Hochul to allocate millions in next year’s state budget to pay for a trauma center in Rockaway. The community, often characterized by its isolation, has a well documented lack of healthcare options that local officials have long aimed to correct.
Earlier this year, the city allocated $25 to fund a new hospital, should the state allow one to be built. Though the funds would likely only cover a fraction of the hospital’s cost, the allocation marked a major step toward the potential building of the healthcare facility.
“We call on Governor Hochul to step up and support bringing a trauma facility to the Rockaway peninsula,” Councilmember Selvena Brooks-Powers said from Far Rockaway on Friday.
Since taking office, Brooks-Powers has spearheaded efforts to fund a trauma center in Rockaway, which currently only has one hospital that lacks trauma response capabilities. The hopes from peninsula locals predates Brooks-Powers, however, and stems from the closing of Peninsula Hospital in 2011.
Currently, the closest trauma center for most Rockaway residents is around 10 miles away at Jamaica Hospital, which takes more than half an hour to get to, often made more difficult by ever-present traffic on the Van Wyck Expressway.
Officials say that many cases – namely the death of NYPD Officer Jonathan Diller who was shot in Far Rockaway this year – may have had different outcomes if not for the time it takes to get to a hospital that can treat trauma victims.
“The nearest trauma center is nearly 10 miles away, a distance that can mean life and death in an emergency situation,” Brooks-Powers said.
However, building a trauma hospital on Rockway has been long considered a long shot. Questions about the project’s funding, location and whether or not Rockaway actually reaches enough trauma cases that would make any trauma center eligible for state health department approval have long swirled around the project.
Councilmember Selvena Brooks-Powers, who has spearheaded efforts to get a trauma center in Rockaway, spoke with several other electeds on Friday calling for the governor to help out with funding it. Eagle photo by Ryan Schwach
Regardless, Brooks-Powers and other Rockaway officials and residents – among them local state representatives and Brooks-Powers council counterpart Joann Ariola – have continued to push for the center.
“We need to make sure that we get that now [that] we have the buy-in from the city…we need the governor to buy in and put her checkbook on the line and make sure that this takes place,” Ariola said Friday. Ariola said Friday. “We have bipartisan support for this in the City Council.”
The project also got a glowing endorsement from Council Speaker Adrienne Adams and Mayor Adams, both of whom spoke in Far Rockaway on Friday.
“Let's take it to the next level,” the mayor said. “Let's make sure we bring a trauma center to Rockaway. This is a powerful, powerful message stating that this is not a forgotten part of our city.”
The mayor had briefly canceled his scheduled appearance at the rally early Friday morning, but reversed and attended the event without explanation. He left immediately after making his remarks.
Though the mayor’s office didn’t give a reason for the short lived cancellation, federal prosecutors issued a subpoena to the mayor’s Director of Asylum-Seeker Operations Molly Schaeffer on Friday morning, the Associated Press reported.
“Governor Hochul I hope you're listening to all of us,” Speaker Adams said. “Because we need you to invest your time and the state's dollars to present the deserved equity for these great people of this great Rockaway peninsula.”
Healthcare committee chair and Queens Councilmember Lynn Schulman also spoke in support of the trauma center on Friday, saying that she hopes electeds can pen a joint letter calling for the governor to allocate funds to the project in next year’s budget.
Although the energy locally behind getting a Rockaway trauma center has grown, the $25 million from the city is only a piece of the approximately $200 needed to construct the hospital. Then comes the need for millions in operational costs to keep a 24/7 stand by trauma center afloat.
“We've been focused largely on the capital investments to build the structure, but it is going to require an ongoing commitment,” Brooks-Powers told the Eagle. “We have not identified who the operator is going to be, whether it's private or whether it's a public hospital. So those conversations continue to take place.”
Brooks-Powers refrained from naming a specific dollar amount she wants to state to cough up.
State Assemblymember Khaleel Andrson said those operational costs could be upwards of $100 million annually.
“We need the budget to include the operating expenses related to running the hospital,” he said.
Advocates are hoping the federal government can kick in some cash as well.
Beyond the funding, the state has a separate major role in the project’s future – it holds the power to issue accreditation for the hospital.
“Ultimately, the State Department of Health has to license a facility, even if you had the money and you built it…they have to license it,” said Dr. Mitchell Katz, the CEO of NYC Health + Hospitals and co-chair of the council’s Trauma Center Task Force.
Rockaway would need the state to approve either a level one or level two trauma center, which categorizes the type and level of service a trauma center is capable of providing.
Officials want one of the top two levels, and anything less would mean that any new hospital would lack the ability to address the two types of trauma incidents officials want treated in Rockaway: shootings and drownings.
There have been questions about whether or not Rockaway has enough trauma cases to reach the requirements for a level one or level two center, but Katz and Brooks-Powers both said the licensing has already been discussed with state health officials.
“The money is important, I think that that will come because we're talking with our federal partners, we're talking with our state partners, and, of course, the city is fully invested in this effort,” Brooks-Powers said. “But we need, most of all, for the governor to certify a trauma facility.”
In response to questions about Friday's rally, Hochul’s office cited past efforts funding healthcare resources in Queens but declined to commit to meeting the demands expressed by lawmakers.
"The State has delivered hundreds of millions of dollars to support local health and hospital resources in the Rockaways and we're committed to ensuring the best health outcomes for Queens residents and all New Yorkers,” a Hochul spokesperson said in a comment to the Eagle.
