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$1.5 M Allocated to Mount Sinai Queens
By Alicia Venter aventer@queensledger.com
$1.5 million has been allocated to Mount Sinai Queens in Astoria, with funding to go towards a new, 22-bed Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Announced by Queens Borough President Donovan Richards Jr. on Friday, Feb. 24 — Day four of his “Borough Hall on Your Block: Western Queens” Initiative — the capital funding reflects a concerted effort to provide quality health care to Queens residents. “We need to make sure hospitals like Mount Sinai Queens are outfitted with the best possible facilities so we can offer the best possible care,” Richards shared at the event. He discussed the dedication that healthcare workers showed the community during the pandemic, and how this funding is a part of his personal efforts to invest in healthcare. The new ICU will replace the existing eight-bed ICU. “Like many other hospitals, the pandemic quickly led to the ICU
From Left: Queens Borough President Donovan Richards Jr., Dr. Nazia Mashriqi, Director of Critical Care , and Dr. Cameron Hernandez, Executive Director of Mount Sinai Queens tion to handle a sudden huge influx Executive Director of Mount Sinai being overwhelmed with patients. of critically ill patients,” Richards Queens, expressed his excitement Those dark days showed us that we said. for the $1.5 million in funding, and need Mount Sinai Queens and all Dr. Cameron Hernandez, jokingly added that the hospital our hospitals to be in a better posi“will ask for a wee bit more,” funding next year, drawing a laugh from the Borough President. Hernandez highlighted the need for Mount Sinai Queens to be “a destination and not a pitstop for Manhattan.” Residents that need serious care should be able to find it in Astoria, he stated, and that with the continual growth of the hospital, he hopes they no longer need to cross the East River to find it. “You can do as many procedures you want here in Queens, but what you really need is the post care,” he said. “We need all of these people to do their best work and the only way that they can do their best work is by having a state-of-the-art 22 bed ICU.” Dr. Nazia Mashriqi, Director of Critical Care, shared that the need for transfers to Manhattan will likely diminish as post-care becomes available at Mount Sinai. Funding for the expansion Dr. Cameron Hernandez drew a laugh from Richards when he said— after he graciously thanked comes from Richards and the City him for the $1.5 in funding — that the hospital would as for a “wee bit” more next year. Council.
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