Senator Chuck Schumer assailed the potential closure of Mount Vernon Hospital, noting that it's a terrible time to close a hospital in the majority-minority community already beleaguered by the coronavirus pandemic.
Outside of Mount Vernon Hospital on Sunday, the Senate minority leader told a crowd of more than 50 people that he stands with nurses in their fight to keep the hospital. The community has fought Montefiore ever since it announced in October its intention to replace the hospital with an emergency center near Pelham and the Bronx.
“In the face of the greatest public health crisis we have faced, one that has deeply and disproportionately impacted the Black community, you do not close down hospitals and constrict access to health care in a community like Mount Vernon,” he said. “Instead we must preserve and expand that access – in the name of saving lives, and in the name of justice.”