The city broke ground Tuesday on a Far Rockaway community health clinic that has been in the works since the de Blasio administration.
New York City Health + Hospitals began constructing a 22,000 square-foot Gotham Health clinic to provide primary care, pediatric and maternity services, behavioral health and dental care to residents, Mayor Eric Adams said at a press conference Tuesday. The clinic, located at 1720 Village Lane, is part of a neighborhood rezoning that sought to increase access to health care on the peninsula.
The city has invested $30 million to retrofit the space and provide advanced medical equipment to the new clinic, according to City Hall spokeswoman Allison Maser. The administration expects to open the clinic in 2027.
The project advances efforts to address health disparities in Far Rockaway that have been in the works since former Mayor Bill de Blasio was in office. The ex-mayor planned to build a public outpatient clinic in Far Rockaway before the end of his term, but dropped the project after Adams was elected and he prepared to leave office, elected officials said at the time.
Adams released a 70-point plan to revitalize the city after the pandemic in 2022. The plan included an initiative to invest in primary care in Far Rockaway, which was hit hard during the pandemic, by building a public health facility downtown.
Far Rockaway has long endured health care disparities. Residents have one-third higher rates of avoidable hospitalizations and diabetes compared to the rest of Queens and New York City at large, Dr. Ted Long, senior vice president of ambulatory care and population health at H+H, said at the press conference Tuesday.
In addition to primary care services, the Gotham Health clinic will have advanced imaging equipment to improve preventive screening, such as CT scanners, bone density scanners, ultrasounds and 3D mammography, the mayor’s office said. Once it opens, the health clinic is expected to serve 19,000 patients within the community across 47,000 visits per year, Long said.
Elected officials lauded the Adams administration for investing in Far Rockaway, but some continued to push for trauma-level care in the neighborhood. Queens Councilwoman Selvena Brooks-Powers said during the press conference that she plans to keep advocating for a level one or level two trauma center facility on the Rockaway peninsula after securing $25 million from the council in last year’s budget.
