Healthcare workers at SUNY Downstate University Hospital and Medical Center are keeping the pressure on Gov. Kathy Hochul.

“We need about $1 billion to keep Downstate, not just for today, not just for next year, but a sustainability plan for the future,” Cynthia Walker, a nurse who has worked at SUNY Downstate for nearly 20 years, said.

She says the hospital, located in East Flatbush, is vital to the community.

“We have a lot of disparities and inequities in our community with Black and brown people. So there’s no way you’re gonna cut our services again to the people who can’t afford healthcare,” Walker said.

Earlier this year, the state announced plans to shutter SUNY Downstate due to financial struggles and a crumbling building. While that’s now temporarily on hold, members of the community coalition, Brooklyn for Downstate, released a report detailing their own recommendations.

They include reducing bed capacity from 342 to 250 beds, making renovations to the Emergency Department and maternity wing, establishing new urgent care and outpatient centers, and maintaining the Kidney Transplant program which is the only of its kind in Kings County.

“SUNY Downstate has the only transplant services in Brooklyn. So the closure of SUNY Downstate would likely lead to the loss of transplant services, not just for this community, but the entire borough,” Matt Leonardo, an analyst who contributed to the report, said.

Hochul announced plans to move inpatient services across the street to Kings County Hospital - NYC Health + Hospitals, which is public and city-run.

The state also committed to investing $500 million to expand outpatient services in a new $300 million facility. But advocates say they’d rather see that investment made to the existing hospital.

“We don’t want to be relocated, we don’t want to go to a wing in another hospital, we want to stay here in our community,” Walker said. “This is the governor’s hospital. This is a state hospital. This is her hospital. And we need to represent this hospital as a New York State hospital as great as New York state is.”

A state-appointed advisory board will ultimately release a plan to help the governor determine the hospital’s future. That’s expected to be released in 2025.