Offering up the right medicine
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- February
- 19
It’s good to see that the Ben Gilman Medical and Dental Center in Spring Valley will be open on Saturdays, a long point of contention since its parent agency has received millions in federal aid.
The issue was simple, yet very complex.
The center’s operators are Jews who observe the sabbath on Saturday, a day when the NAACP and others argued many Spring Valley residents of other faiths would like to access the center and its services without having to take time off from work during the week.
The standoff goes back several years and has resulted in an on-again, off-again discrimination complaint against the center by the civil rights group.
The parties came close to a resolution in 2007, but that fell apart when the state found no bias.
Mendel Hoffman, the head of Monsey-based Community Medical and Dental Care Inc., which operates the center along with a sister facility in Monsey, now says opening the clinic on Saturday is in the interests of its patients.
“I’m changing my policy,” Hoffman says, “because of my firm belief in serving the public good and preserving the health of all above all else.”
The Saturday hours will begin soon, said Hoffman, who will also operate the center on Jewish holidays falling during the week.
Whatever motivation, the bottom line decision is the right one — making health care funded by federal dollars available to all, no matter of their faith, the color of their skin or their ethnicity.
The key, off course, will be having the right staff to make the Saturday hours a success.
This entry was posted
on Thursday, February 19th, 2009 at 5:03 pm by Bob Baird.
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