Demand for change: Coalition of clergy pushing for replacement hospital

DAYTON — Clergy Community Coalition members said that while they are few in number, their mission is strong as they speak out on ending systemic racism and health care inequality.

“It is the county who issued $590 million of bonds for bond refinancing for Premier Health. That allowed them to pay for their rapid expansion, unprecedented expansion in white suburbs. While they are closing and destroying the Good Samaritan Hospital, they are building hospitals everywhere else,” the Rev. Dr. Rockney Carter, president of the Clergy Community Coalition, said Tuesday.

Good Samaritan Hospital closed nearly two years ago and in that time the black community has continually raised concerns about those who live on Dayton’s west side and the lack of health care in that area. Carter pointed to racial injustices he says exists within health care.

His group gathered Tuesday afternoon in front of the Montgomery County Administration building, on West Third Street, to demand change.

“If there is the case, which is our contention, then Premier Health should have never been able to issue those $590 million worth of bonds for refinancing for Premier Health,” Carter said.

Bishop Richard Cox, protest chairman for the coalition, said it was disheartening to him when the hospital was torn down. He thinks more should’ve been done to save Good Sam.

“The city did not stop the demolition of the hospital. The county did not stop the destruction of the hospital and the people are suffering because of it,” Cox said. “When you are suffering on the west side of Dayton like we have been suffering -- we have to say to the politicians, like Fannie Lou Hamer said… ‘We are sick and tired of being sick and tired.' ”

The coalition filed an administrative complaint with the Department of Health and Human Resources, arguing that the closure of Good Sam was based on racism -- in violation of the Affordable Cares Act and Civil Rights Act of 1964.

“We believe at the end of the day, especially with the change in administration that’s coming in November, we are going to prevail,” Carter said. “We are going to prevail in 2021 and somebody is going to make them build a hospital for our constituents on the west side of Dayton.”

The coalition plans to meet with Mayor Nan Whaley and the city commissioners Wednesday morning at city hall, where they hope to discuss short- and long-term resolutions regarding change in the health care industry.

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