Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Unveils New Investment in New Cardiac Catheterization Lab at Lincoln Hospital

Governor Kathy Hochul and Congress Member Ritchie Torres today announced a nearly $10 million state investment to realize the completion of a cardiac catheterization laboratory at Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx. This investment is critical to advancing health equity in the South Bronx, an area that has historically suffered from a lack of access to critical cardiac care in a high-risk population. Today's announcement builds on Governor Hochul's historic investments in New York's health care system, including significant capital and operating support for safety net hospitals around the state and the largest Medicaid rate increases in decades.

VIDEO: The event is available to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264, mp4).

AUDIO: The Governor's remarks are available in audio form here.

PHOTOS: The Governor's Flickr page will post photos of the event here.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

Thank you, my friends. It is so wonderful to be here. I feel like I've never left. I'm in the Bronx all the time. Please don't tell the other counties and boroughs, but it's a place I treasure coming to. And there's such a spirit, a can-do attitude, a vibe that you only get in the Bronx. And so I always feel welcome back here with all of you once again.

And always, great to connect with our greatest champion in Washington, someone who is fighting the good fight every single day of the week, and he's got them right where he wants them now, because I'm on the side of Ritchie Torres, our great congressman. Thank you. Thank you for all you're doing. And someone who puts her heart and soul into this borough, because we talk about it all the time, in Vanessa Gibson, who has been steeled by fire. She came to office at a difficult time, and she is one strong woman. Our CEO, Christina Contreras, I thank her for being the leader of everybody. My friends in the state legislature, who I was just marching with yesterday, partying. After I left you, I went to another party in Harlem, so I haven't stopped dancing and partying since yesterday. But Yudelka Tapia, I want to thank her for being a great champion. Emerita Torres is here as well. Good to have her. And Councilmember Amanda Farías - I want to thank her, Farías, for all she does. You really have the best, and this is the dream team of elected officials, and I work with every one of them very closely and [I'm] honored to consider them my friends.

But let's talk about this place. For 175 years, this hospital, Lincoln Hospital, has been serving the people of the Bronx. Today, more than 300 dedicated doctors and many other healthcare professionals serve thousands of patients every single year, including more than 125,000 that come through the ER, desperate, desperate for immediate emergency attention. And in fact, the trauma center here is the third busiest in the entire nation. Right here - third busiest in the entire country. That's extraordinary. So all the healthcare professionals, the nurses, the aides, the doctors, I thank you for taking care of the people who live in this community and rely on you literally for their lives. It is a powerful force, and I thank all of you. I can never thank you enough.

But for 25 years - 26 years? Twenty-six years, the staff has been asking for one thing. Maybe not one thing. One big thing. A cath lab, right? A cath lab. And I wasn't sure what it was - Congressman Torres had to explain this to me when he was asking for it - but it's one of the most crucial life-saving units in an entire hospital.

So I ask: How did you get by so long without having this? Someone comes here with a heart condition, heart attack, and you have to say, "We'd love to take care of you, but we have to transport you over here, and hopefully things go fast, and you don't get stuck in traffic, because we take you to another hospital."

That's not what I call high-quality healthcare. And this hospital's been begging for this for a long time, because they're excellent in everything they do, but they've been held back because of not having the resources, the ability to do this, until now. Because we know during a heart attack, literally minutes, minutes, seconds can be the difference between life and death, and it's all about giving the right care as soon as possible.

So think about this. A family member - father, mother, grandmother, grandfather - having a heart attack. You would want them to have access to this technology and this lab right where they enter first. Why take them somewhere else? Well, this community's long wait is finally over, and I'm really proud to announce nearly $10 million in state funding for Lincoln Hospital. $10 million. The long, long wait is over.

That money will close the gap from what our legislature is doing and our Borough President's doing - you'll hear about that - but you'll get exactly what you've been looking for. Our amazing doctors and nurses will have the equipment they need to perform the emergency test literally to see directly into the heart and make split second decisions that will save lives. And because of this investment, more parents will go home and see their kids. More dads and moms will be able to see their kids walk down the aisle maybe someday. More grandparents will see their kids, be able to take them to the playground. I'm a grandmother. That's a big deal to me. I take my kids to the playground - don't see them as much as I'd like, but I know how important those connections are. And to have a healthy grandparent or parent or loved one is so important.

And here's the timetable. Because they've been waiting 26 years - how long is this going to take, and how can we make it go faster? Construction will take 18 to 24 months. That's it - 18 to 24. Get busy. Everybody working on this, get out. Go, go, I don't want to see you here. Get out the door.

This new lab will serve hundreds if not thousands of patients every single year. So we're going to get this done, and I could not be prouder, and I thank you for your patience. It came to my attention, I said, "Fund that. Fund that right now. It's so important." I care deeply about this community, but I also care about Lincoln Hospital and the ability for you to continue doing the extraordinary work you've been doing for 175 years.

So we also have a lot of other challenges in the Bronx, which are front and center for me and my administration, and it's about improving transportation networks and more train stations, subway stations and making sure that we have more housing built and affordable housing and all these other challenges.

But today was an important milestone in our mission to just improve the quality of life here and making sure that every corner of this state has what it needs.

Again, I want to thank the Congressman. I cannot thank you enough for caring so deeply to make this. When I say, "What do you want?" And this is a big one - he just was un-relentless in asking for this. And our Borough President, aggressive, asking for it. Our Assemblymembers, aggressive, asking for it. So obviously you won. But we all win with this. We all win with this.

But also, I think about our Congressman, I think about the unrelenting attacks from our federal government on healthcare. Literally with the big, ugly, horrible, worst ever bill they could have passed a year ago, New York State lost $10 billion for healthcare, and people have been suffering since then. People losing insurance. Hospitals, nursing homes getting less care that they used to be able to provide, getting less support. The State is trying to make up so much of this. And then just last week, when you just think they're finally going to take their foot off the gas and trying to run over all of us. They don't - they go right over our seniors because then they took away the subsidies to help pay for premiums for prescription drugs, because they don't care. They don't care. I had to go into senior centers and tell them, "I'm sorry to tell you this, but this is what Donald Trump and the Republicans in Washington are doing. They're taking away a way to make your prescription drugs more affordable." And they look devastated and they hurt that people would break a promise that was made to them years ago that we'd finally do something about making prescription drugs more affordable.

It's a fight. It's a fight. And I will say that affects 1.3 million seniors in New York. It's heartless and cruel, but the bottom line is they don't care at all, but we'll stand up. I want you to know you're a New Yorker. We look out for you. We look out for all of our residents and we expanded the Medicare savings program to help seniors save over $7,000 a year because our seniors need that money back in their pockets.

And no one should have to choose between filling their prescriptions and filling their pantries and their cupboards, and that's exactly what's going on. I've heard it directly, and it's heartbreaking to me.

We're also protecting families, low-income families from medical debt because no one should be buried in debt just for taking their child to the doctor. That's not what we do in this great country or in this State.

Also, something like insulin co-pays, this keeps so many people alive, but they're so expensive. We now cover, we eliminated co-pays for insulin in the State of New York, saving New Yorkers $25 million, and now making insurers cover the cost of EpiPens, because these are life-saving.

And if you need to know more, I'm going to tell you this: We're ready to take the fight. We're ready to take the fight because we're sick and tired of what Washington has unleashed on our people, and I'll continue being out there on the front lines, along with our members of Congress and everyone else who wants to be part of this.

And lastly, I want to address something that has troubled me deeply for many years as a mom, New York's first mom Governor. Every mother -

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Thank you. Every mother deserves to feel the joy and excitement of bringing a healthy new baby into the world. And I've done conversations with the Borough President and others. We've sat down with mothers who are pregnant and talking about their challenges, and we have to do so much more on maternal infant mortality in Black communities.

We're trying to make a difference, but this is a top priority for mine. I want you to know that. We're going to continue tackling this because getting pregnant should not be a death sentence in some communities, and for so many it is.

And so know this, this is an important statement today of our priorities, who we're fighting for, where our values are as New Yorkers, and I'm proud to make this support to get this over the finish line for this cath lab.

Healthcare is broad-reaching, and I'm going to tackle every element of it until every single resident of the state of New York knows they're getting world-class healthcare that they can afford, and to be able to stay alive - despite what is happening in Washington. You can take that to the bank because that is my commitment to all of you.

Thank you very much.