SUNY Downstate Advisory Board: Spend $1B to modernize the hospital

A community advisory board is recommending that the state invest nearly $1 billion to modernize Brooklyn’s SUNY Downstate Hospital, expand the emergency department and build a new ambulatory surgery center on the campus, rather than closing the medical center as originally planned.

Gov. Kathy Hochul and the state Legislature established the nine-person advisory board on Downstate’s future last year after Hochul faced backlash over an initial plan to replace the medical center with an outpatient clinic.

“Central Brooklyn deserves world-class health care, and with this historic $1 billion investment, we’re securing a brighter, healthier future for SUNY Downstate and the communities it serves,” Hochul said of the advisory board’s recommendations Thursday.

Hochul is still going over the d