On Sunday, State Sen, Simcha Felder, who has long been part of New York’s Jewish community said that the ‘Save Maimonides’ campaign is being led by “hatchet men who’ve run negative campaigns and whose goal is to destroy the hospital and besmirch [Maimonides CEO] Ken Gibbs.”
“The movement is not kosher. It’s absolutely a smear campaign,” Felder said, claiming that the group is spending “hundreds of thousands of dollars” on what he described as an anti-Maimonides campaign.
Source: Brooklyn Reporter (Photo courtesy of Maimonides Medical Center)
Save Maimonides campaign is a grassroots effort launched in July to counter what it contends is neglect and mismanagement at the hospital. The campaign has allegedly collected around 1000 complaints against the hospital regarding the quality of patient care.
Felder said the need for improvements at Maimonides is beyond dispute, but he went on to add, “Everyone agrees improvements have to be made. You fix the problem. It doesn’t mean you destroy the hospital.”
Reacting to Felder’s statement, Save Maimonides shot back and suggested that Felder is biased toward the hospital’s trustees and management who have donated to his campaigns. “It is unfortunate that Senator Felder seems to be under pressure from his donors at the hospital, but we agree with his recent public statements regarding the poor patient treatment, financial mismanagement and indifference of the executives at Maimonides Medical Center. We hope this sudden change of heart does not mean he is also turning his back on over 2,000 of his constituents who have voiced their shock at the poor quality of care at the failing hospital in recent weeks. We have one goal – to make Maimonides better for all of its patients,” the group said.
In response, Felder scoffed and said he hasn’t had a competitive election in years and hasn’t focused on fundraising. “This just proves my point. This is their M of O [modus operandi]– they try to smear and destroy people. I’m not afraid. They’re full of it,” he said.
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