N.J.’s only public hospital just got $50M in the state budget. Some say it desperately needs more.
The state budget Gov. Phil Murphy signed on June 30 dedicates $50 million toward a new University Hospital in Newark, the only public hospital in New Jersey.
That may sound like a lot of money. But not to the union representing 1,400 nurses and other medical workers who frequently must dodge plumbing and electrical problems and manage an emergency department running at twice its capacity. Not when the hospital’s former CEO Shereef Elnahal said in 2020 the facility needs about $20 million in “emergency” repairs every year for the foreseeable future.
After months of publicly campaigning for Murphy and the state Legislature for $151 million for operations plus a $600 million down payment on the estimated $1.2 billion cost of replacing the 43-year-old antiquated facility, the leader of Health Professionals and Allied Employees said she is disappointed.