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  December 1, 2002
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Making Sure Your Health Is In Good Hands
By Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg


One of City government's crucial jobs is protecting the public's health. And recently, New York has passed two important public health tests with flying colors.

The first concerns something of fundamental importance to all of us: the purity of our drinking water. New York City has one of the greatest water supply systems in the world. Up to 1.5 billion gallons of pure water is always there whenever we turn on the taps in our homes and businesses, schools and hospitals.

90% of our drinking water comes from the Catskills and the Delaware River watersheds, and is maintained in Upstate reservoirs. Federal law requires that such reservoir water go through filtration plants--unless the water meets strict quality standards and unless there's an effective plan in place to keep the water supply clean.

Last week, the Federal Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA, granted New York a five-year waiver from filtering the water coming from the Catskill and Delaware watersheds. That decision is a tribute to the success the city has had working with Upstate farmers, industries and local governments to protect the watersheds. And over the next five years, the City will be taking new steps with our Upstate partners to protect that water supply. The EPA waiver means the City will be spared the expense of building a $6 billion filtration system, which is especially good news during these tight budget times.

The hospitals and clinics that are run by the Health and Hospitals Corporation also protect the public's health. Every year, some 1.3 million New Yorkers rely on these City facilities for health care. Last week, I joined HHC President Dr. Benjamin Chu in announcing that five of our municipal hospitals have received perfect scores this year from the national professional organization that evaluates hospitals--the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations.

The five hospitals--Woodhull Medical Center in Brooklyn, Bellevue and Harlem Hospitals in Manhattan, North Central Bronx Hospital, and Coler-Goldwater Hospital on Roosevelt Island--were given 100% rating. That means that they were found to be in full standards compliance in all areas, with no recommendations for improvement. That's a tremendous achievement for public hospitals that are legally required to take any patient that comes through their doors, regardless of their ability to pay. By comparison, only 2 out of 18 far more selective voluntary hospitals that were surveyed in New York City this year received such high marks.

Taken together, these two decisions are a strong vote of confidence in the outstanding quality of New York City's public health system--something we can all be proud of and thankful for.


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