July 17, 2012
LaborPress Editorial By Neal Tepel, Publisher
The New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC) wants to sell off in-patient and outpatient dialysis services to a private company to operate at nine HHC facilities.
By cutting corners to make profits for their shareholders, for profit dialysis centers are unnecessarily putting the lives of our loved ones at risk. This strategy that looks only at cost and not quality of service is clearly not in the best interest of HHC patients or NYC.
HHC claims that it will save money. Yet it has not taken the time to assess the impact on patient care of the dialysis services recently contracted out at Bellevue Hospital prior to this new initiative. HHC needs to consider patient care, quality of service and accountability and not only cost.
HHC should work with the affected unions to come up with alternatives to contracting out the renal dialysis services at the nine HHC hospitals and continue to provide the care using dedicated public employees.
The City-Time fiasco in which almost one billion dollars was wasted by NYC in the name of ‘cost savings by contracting out’ must not be repeated by HHC.