Save Maimonides, a grassroots effort led by Brooklyn community leaders and members, hosted a town hall in Boro Park on Monday night to educate and mobilize the local community on the campaign’s goals and efforts to improve its hospital. The event, held in Ateres Chaya Hall, hosted more than a thousand participants who came together to show their support and share their negative experiences at Maimonides.
“The turnout demonstrates widespread concern in the community about the hospital,” said Mendy Reiner, the Co-Chairman of Save Maimonides. “The strong showing from Boro Park residents and beyond signals a strong, urgent mandate for government officials and hospital leadership to turn Maimonides around.”
The event featured prominent community activists and leaders, including author and philanthropist David Lichtenstein, Professor Alan Dershowitz and community activists Baruch Rosinger and Zvi Gluck. They shared examples of the hospital leadership’s negligence and ways to restore the medical center’s legacy. Lichtenstein recounted how three of his friends died after going to Maimonides for routine procedures (video linked here).
The event also kicked off Save Maimonides’ petition drive to demand oversight of the hospital by state regulators. Hundreds of attendees have already signed onto the campaign. Those who were not in attendance can show their support online at https://mmcpetitions.org.
“This is an urgent community issue,” said Zvi Gluck, a local advocate and former EMT at Maimonides for years. “The hospital management is not effectively doing their job, directly causing pain and suffering to patients, their family members, and hospital staff.”
The coalition has gathered thousands of complaints from patients and their families detailing severe mistreatment, understaffing, and negligence, from elderly patients trapped in rooms with no air conditioning during a heatwave to doctors overlooking symptoms of grave concern. Save Maimo aims to have the New York State Department of Health step in to provide proper oversight and ensure hospital leadership has experience in the medical field.
“CEO Kenneth Gibbs has no background in nonprofits or health,” said Reiner. “We want to conduct a national search for an experienced leader to join the hospital. We need professionals with medical and nonprofit management experience, and the state must step in with formal oversight if we want to save the hospital.”
Bolstered by the success of Monday’s event, the campaign will soon expand its town halls to more communities impacted by the hospital’s failure to meet the needs of its patients.
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