A final state budget deal between Gov. Kathy Hochul and state lawmakers will include $450 million for a new emergency department and annex at Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse.
The funding will be included in budget bills due to be made public later today or Wednesday, a spokesperson for Hochul confirmed to syracuse.com | The Post-Standard.
If approved by the legislature, the money would fully fund the replacement of an outdated and overcrowded emergency room that serves a 14-county region in Upstate New York.
Hochul had included $200 million for the project in her budget proposal in January. The governor stood firm with that number in budget negotiations as recently as last week, saying it was enough to start construction.
But state lawmakers from Central New York pushed back, arguing that it was important to lock in funding this year for the second busiest adult trauma center in New York state.
The Assembly and Senate members said the chronic overcrowding and other needs at University Hospital are too urgent to risk pushing into future budget years, when the state’s financial picture could change.
The hospital’s emergency room treats three times as many patients as it has the space to accommodate, a problem that forces some patients to wait on chairs or gurneys in the hallways for treatment, syracuse.com found.
Lawmakers launched a last-minute lobbying blitz for the hospital expansion funding. The effort included Assembly and Senate members from the Syracuse area, Binghamton and Utica who had daily contact with legislative leaders and Hochul’s office.
The state budget was due April 1. But legislative leaders and Hochul spent the past month negotiating a series of policy issues before finally turning to financial matters last week.
Matt Janiszewski, a spokesperson for Hochul, said the governor believes the modernized and expanded Syracuse hospital is crucial for the region’s future.
“With Micron on the horizon, Central New York is poised for tremendous growth and SUNY Upstate must be ready to serve the tens of thousands of people that will call this region home,” Janiszewski said.
The SUNY Board of Trustees requested $450 million from the state in January to build a new emergency department, burn center and more operating rooms at University Hospital.
The average wait time at the hospital’s emergency room was nearly five hours in 2023, one of the worst in the state. One in seven patients left the adult ER without getting care.
The hospital serves as the only Level 1 trauma center in a 14-county region between Rochester and Albany.
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