• Subscribe & Support
  • Print Edition
    • Get Home Delivery
    • Read ePaper Online
    • Newsstand Locations
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Contact
    • Advertise
    • Customer Support
    • Submit A News Tip
    • Where’s My Paper?
  • Our Newsletters
  • Manage HV1 Account
  • Free HV1 Trial
Hudson Valley One
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s Happening
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Featured Events
      • Art
      • Books
      • Kids
      • Lifestyle & Wellness
      • Food & Drink
      • Music
      • Nature
      • Stage & Screen
  • Opinions
    • Letters
    • Columns
    • Editorials
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Help Wanted
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s Happening
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Featured Events
      • Art
      • Books
      • Kids
      • Lifestyle & Wellness
      • Food & Drink
      • Music
      • Nature
      • Stage & Screen
  • Opinions
    • Letters
    • Columns
    • Editorials
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Help Wanted
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Log In
No Result
View All Result
Hudson Valley One
No Result
View All Result

County legislature narrowly votes to continue pathology services with Health Alliance

by Brian Hubert
September 29, 2021
in Health, Politics & Government
0
Op-ed: End the ethics waiting game

(Photo by Julie O'Connor)

The Ulster County Legislature voted 13-9 on September 14, to continue to contract with HealthAlliance parent WMC Health for pathology services, but not before several legislators, using the meeting as a forum, expressed outrage over the healthcare conglomerate moving inpatient mental health services out of Kingston.

Many legislators said how they didn’t want one cent to go to an organization they say has dismantled Ulster County’s community health after inpatient mental health services were moved out of the former Benedictine Hospital campus in 2020 on what hospital officials said then was a temporary basis to free up beds for an expected surge in COVID-19 cases, with those seeking such services being forced to go WMC Health’s Mid-Hudson Regional Hospital in Poughkeepsie.

Casting a no to what he billed “a protest vote” Legislature chairman Dave Donaldson (D-Kingston) expressed outrage the 60 beds have never returned to Kingston. “They never intended to move these beds back to Kingston,” he said. “They profited from the pandemic to eliminate inpatient mental healthcare.”

He said he was only enraged more when he found out HealthAlliance axed 40 staff and began to cut more positions, putting extraordinary stress on the remaining staff.  “Rather than compassion and support they made staff reductions and existing nurses had to take on double shifts,” he said. “These short-sighted executives risk more than public health. HealthAlliance is creating a healthcare desert in Ulster County, especially for those with less means who can’t go elsewhere.”

Ken Ronk, (R-Shawangunk) said Donaldson said it all too well.  “WMC Health has gotten more than $100 million from the state and other organizations to build up healthcare and has used that money to transfer care from both hospitals to Broadway, then back to Mary’s Ave and now not in our community. Like the chairman said they’re taking healthcare from our residents.”

Ronk said as a first responder he sees people who need this sort of care closer to home. He said Dutchess County has higher reimbursement rates for Medicaid and he thinks that’s behind WMCHealth moving inpatient mental health services out of Kingston. “If they intake someone at Kingston Hospital or Benedictine Hospital and transfer them across the river they get more money.”

Legislator Al Bruno, a Republican who represents District 2 in Saugerties also said he didn’t want the legislature to give WMCHealth a dime until the inpatient mental health beds return to Kingston. He said the move couldn’t come at a worse time as Opioid use and overdoses have skyrocketed during the pandemic. “Health Alliance is looking at the bottom line,” he said. “Their frontline workers when the pandemic started to wane, they terminated them so we can’t [give] them any more money.”

He urged the county to contract with organizations that cared more about the public good than the bottom line.

But the legislature admitted its hands were tied with it being simply too expensive and impractical to move pathological services out of the county and the resolution ended up passing.

Join the family! Grab a free month of HV1 from the folks who have brought you substantive local news since 1972. We made it 50 years thanks to support from readers like you. Help us keep real journalism alive.
- Geddy Sveikauskas, Publisher
Previous Post

Kathleen Schneck-Suma assumes New Paltz High School Assistant Principal role

Next Post

Village of New Paltz DRI bid would transform downtown

Brian Hubert

Related Posts

Woodstock meeting and DEC letter reveal competing narratives
Politics & Government

Woodstock meeting and DEC letter reveal competing narratives

December 1, 2023
Town of Ulster pondering four-year supervisor terms
Politics & Government

Ulster town justice asks town officials to maintain two part-time clerks

November 30, 2023
Five hundred bucks extra a month?
Community

Five hundred bucks extra a month?

November 28, 2023
Expansion project at Mid-Hudson Sporting Clays causes a disturbance
Politics & Government

Expansion project at Mid-Hudson Sporting Clays causes a disturbance

November 27, 2023
After years of frustration, Woodstock landowners still awaiting final resolution in illegal dumping case
Environment

Town of Woodstock among the defendants in Shady dumping lawsuit

November 27, 2023
Op-ed: End the ethics waiting game
Politics & Government

Ulster County transparency law languishes in legal purgatory

November 28, 2023
Next Post
County housing plan aims to counter NIMBYism

Village of New Paltz DRI bid would transform downtown

Trending Posts

  • Woodstock meeting and DEC letter reveal competing narratives

  • Ulster town justice asks town officials to maintain two part-time clerks

  • A free telescope? If you love the heavens, it might be yours

  • Sinterklaas Festival Day in Rhinebeck this Saturday

  • The golden age of Woodstock lithography

  • It’s A Wonderful Life: The Live Radio Play at Colony

Weather

Kingston
◉
41°
Cloudy
7:05 am4:25 pm EST
Feels like: 37°F
Wind: 5mph SSW
Humidity: 100%
Pressure: 30.02"Hg
UV index: 0
SunMonTue
45/39°F
48/32°F
43/28°F
Weather forecast Kingston, New York ▸

Subscribe

Independent. Local. Substantive. Subscribe now.

  • Subscribe & Support
  • Print Edition
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Contact
  • Our Newsletters
  • Manage HV1 Account
  • Free HV1 Trial

© 2022 Ulster Publishing

No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s Happening
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Featured Events
      • Art
      • Books
      • Kids
      • Lifestyle & Wellness
      • Food & Drink
      • Music
      • Nature
      • Stage & Screen
  • Opinions
    • Letters
    • Columns
    • Editorials
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Help Wanted
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Subscribe & Support
  • Contact Us
    • Customer Support
    • Advertise
    • Submit A News Tip
  • Print Edition
    • Read ePaper Online
    • Newsstand Locations
    • Where’s My Paper
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Manage HV1 Account
  • Log In
  • Free HV1 Trial
  • Subscribe to Our Newsletters
    • Hey Kingston
    • New Paltz Times
    • Woodstock Times
    • Week in Review

© 2022 Ulster Publishing