Statement from State Senator Eric Adams regarding the audit of SUNY Downstate

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                         

Statement from State Senator Eric Adams regarding the audit of SUNY Downstate

Yesterday the state comptroller released an audit of SUNY Downstate Medical Center, which showed that the hospital lost $275.8 million in 2011 and projected 2012 losses could reach $200 million. The audit was made at the request of Sen. Eric Adams of Brooklyn.

Senator Adams states: “When I requested that the office of the state comptroller audit SUNY Downstate Medical Center, I feared we would learn that the hospital was in dire straits. Unfortunately, that fear has now been realized. Downstate’s fiscal problems are largely due to the misguided purchases of Victory Memorial and Long Island College Hospitals, despite SUNY's affirmation to my colleagues, the public, and me that the purchase would be a good move for the all three hospitals. Now a once thriving and vibrant hospital, SUNY Downstate, is on life support.”

“We now have to use the audit in the most positive possible way: to salvage Downstate's fiscal viability in order to protect the hospital, Brooklyn's sick and injured, and the employees who work tirelessly for them.”

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