STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- New York state court officers continued to show their support for Staten Island’s hospital staff Friday night outside Richmond University Medical Center in West Brighton.
A parade of cars with honking horns and yelling passengers made its way past the hospital’s entrance on Bard Avenue for the doctors, nurses and other staff at the hospital as part of the #ClapBecauseWeCare effort.
Firefighters also lined up along the sidewalk to applaud the staff as they made their way up to Castleton Avenue.
Selina Grey and Joan Rowley of the New York State Nurses Association also delivered supplies to the hospital after receiving a donation.
“RUMC is not getting a whole lot of supplies,” Grey said. “They’re a stand-alone hospital They really need the resources.”
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Staten Island’s lack of a public hospital has caused controversy in the past few days over where the city is putting its resources.
Both RUMC and Staten Island University Hospital are privately owned, and not part of the city’s Health + Hospitals public health system.
Staten Island’s elected officials have criticized Mayor Bill de Blasio this week for leaving Staten Island out of the city’s coronavirus response as resources are sent to the city’s public health system.
Together, they penned a letter to the mayor, asking him to give Staten Island’s private hospitals a share of the staffing that is going to the public hospital system.
Councilwoman Debi Rose (D-North Shore) attended Friday night’s event and continued to call on the mayor to ensure Staten Island’s hospitals have the staffing levels they need.
“For them to treat Staten Island the same as the other boroughs is not fair,” Rose said, referencing the fact that Staten Island is the only borough without a public hospital. “It’s just another example of the disproportionate attention that we get."