Senator Golden Joins Fight To Retrieve Bay Imaging Records
Brooklyn – Senator Marty Golden has joined an army of Brooklyn elected officials to get back much needed records from a shuttered medical imaging center. Lawmakers join together in a bipartisan, multi-pronged effort at the city, state, and federal levels of government to resolve this issue.
Bay Imaging was a medical imaging center with 3 Brooklyn locations. In August 2006, the centers all shut down abruptly without first notifying their clients. These patients were left in the dark and unable to recover their files. Councilman Gentile has been assisting residents throughout New York City file complaints and track down their records.
At the request of Councilman Gentile, Senator Marty Golden joins Congressman Vito Fossella, and Assemblyman Alec Brook-Krasny to fire off a letters to New York State Health Commissioner Richard Daines and the Food and Drug Administration Centers for Devices and Radiological Health Director Daniel Shultz demanding immediate action in regards to obtaining vital medical records. Realizing that action may be hindered by jurisdiction issues or lack of statutory authority, these officials elected to the city, state, and federal government stand ready to take action as necessary to ensure the appropriate agency has the requisite authority to resolve this issue. Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz added a letter of his own stating his support on this issue.
Senator Marty Golden stated, "We must step up the collective efforts on behalf of the women of this community who are desperately seeking to obtain copies of their last mammogram to bring with them to their next mammography for comparison purposes. I urge that swift and meaningful action be taken so that these are finally produced. For a couple of months, Bay Imaging has shown arrogance, resistance and has not been cooperative. This is not acceptable and so we begin a full court press and we will not rest until every woman has their mammography records in their possession. It is the responsibility of the imaging lab, and we will hold them to this duty."
"This situation has become quite dire since some of these patients are suffering from potentially terminal conditions such as cancer in which early detection and swift medical treatment is of critical importance. Others require these medical records for accuracy," Congressman Fossella said. "Withholding these test results has the potential to cause detrimental and irreversible damage to the health of these patients."
"This is a prime opportunity for a bipartisan effort of all the elected officials in the area." Councilmember Gentile said. "This problem needs to be addressed by every level of the government and that is exactly what this coalition of officials is going to do."