Concerns mount about construction delays to Dunkirk hospital

DUNKIRK, N.Y. (WIVB) — Hospital workers and leaders came together Tuesday night in Dunkirk to raise concerns about delays to the construction of a new Brooks Memorial Hospital.

Many in the community say the state needs to fund the construction for the modern hospital.

Back in 2017, New York State’s budget included over$65 million in grants to help fund the transformation of a new Brooks Memorial Hospital. Organizers say that moneys been sitting around for years and a new facility is needed now.

“We were promised this money seven years ago and it’s seven years too late,” said Kenneth Long, a registered nurse at Brooks Memorial.

A notice from 199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East said that “funding to build [a] new modern micro-hospital In the village of Fredonia is being held up by the New York State Department of Health, while hospital workers continue to provide care at the aging and outdated facility.”

“The situations are becoming dire. The building is almost becoming. I would say, dilapidated, falling apart it needs for pairs that are very costly and also honestly it’s cost ineffective,” Long said.

According to the union, which represents more than 450,000 nurses and caregivers in the U.S. plans to build the new 57,000 square foot , 15-bed micro hospital include a cost of roughly $71 million. The goal is to have that covered by $17 and $50 million grants awarded by the state in 2017, but it’s been almost seven years of delays. Tge New York State Department of Health sayd that each contract has been on hold due to Certificate of Need sustainability requirements.

“We have a solid to sustainability plan, part of our plan is not only to build the new hospital, but also integrate with our partner Kaleida Health,” said Ken Morris, the CEO of the Brooks-TLC Hospital system.

State lawmakers are also pushing for the hospital. State Senator George Borrello said in a statement that that the longer the state waits to release the long-ago allocated funding, the more it is costing taxpayers dollars to keep the old hospital afloat.

“Healthcare is very expensive our hospital cost a lot of money it’s an old aging building but the faster we get a new hospital open the more efficient will be in the future,” Morris said.

As it stands now there is a plan its just a matter of when funding will come to set it in motion. On Friday, thousands of healthcare workers from across the state will march to Niagara Square in Buffalo to request state government save healthcare in New York.

Dillon Morello is a reporter from Pittsburgh who has been part of the News 4 team since September of 2023. See more of his work here and follow him on Twitter.