| GUEST OPINION |
|
| State Rep. Paul Costa
|
|
State legislators had no say in hospital closure
To the Editor:
I respectfully disagree with a statement from the Wednesday, Aug. 17 Post-Gazette article titled "Braddock residents continue hospital fight."
John R. McGinley, Jr., an attorney representing UPMC, was quoted as saying, "if the citizens of Braddock are upset, they should be angry with their elected officials – from the local level to the state – who approved the plans for the hospital."
I, as well as County Executive Dan Onorato, U.S. Congressman Mike Doyle, former Pennsylvania Sen. Sean Logan and Braddock Mayor John Fetterman, attended a meeting with UPMC officials where we made several suggestions to keep the hospital open but were told this is a done deal and it is moving forward.
We, at no time, had a say in UPMC’s decision to shut down Braddock Hospital. We did the only thing we could at that point, and that was to try and get UPMC to agree to work with Braddock and the county to redevelop the land. Braddock and county officials came up with a plan to potentially turn the property into a multi-use facility where, among other things, an assisted living facility, an independent living facility and a higher education facility would be built on the former hospital site.
Again, please let's be perfectly clear. Local and state elected officials did not choose or agree to have Braddock Hospital closed. We worked tirelessly to have the hospital remain. UPMC is a corporate entity that makes its own decisions in terms of what facilities they are willing to maintain, and unfortunately, this was not one of them much to our disappointment. We, however, never agreed to its closing; but also, never had a say in the matter.
Sincerely,
Paul Costa
Pa. State Representative
34th Legislative District
###