Press Release: New Hospital Bill Unanimously Approved on its First Vote!

News Release — Ward 7 DC Council member Vincent Gray

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                

July 9, 2020   

Contact: Takiyah “T.N.” Tate

Washington, D.C. – The Council of the District of Columbia unanimously approved the “New Hospital at St. Elizabeths Amendment Act of 2020.”  

The bill and its accompanying agreements approve a partnership with Universal Health Services to establish a new GW Health Hospital and ambulatory pavilion at St. Elizabeths East Campus. 

This legislation will transform our health care system through the establishment of a new, state of the art, community hospital and ambulatory pavilion.  The new hospital will be integrated with the existing George Washington University Hospital with physicians, medical students, and  research provided by the George Washington Medical Faculty Associates and George Washington University School of Medicine.  

Upon the Council’s approval of the New Hospital bill, Ward 7 Councilmember and Committee on Health Chair Vincent C. Gray released the following statement: 

“At the Committee of the Whole on Tuesday, I spoke about how this new hospital legislation will improve health outcomes for residents on the East End of the District.  

“Residents in Wards 7 and 8 do not have equal access to quality health care providers like other Wards enjoy. We must travel across the Anacostia River to give birth, to receive care for chronic diseases and to deal with serious incidents of gun violence.  There is no ambulatory care center.  There is no urgent care center.  There is no neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).  There is no certified trauma center. 

“Black Lives Matter isn’t simply a slogan. We must actually fund the projects and services that address hundreds of years of disparity in education, economic wherewithal, and health. We must end the racial divide in access to quality health care in this city once and for all.  We cannot earnestly say “Black lives matter” until we truly support achieving health equity across the District, especially in Wards 7 and 8 where large numbers of black and brown people live. Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. said it best with his famous quote that “of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.”

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