Dayton, Ohio – Local leaders from the Clergy Community Coalition (CCC) are working tirelessly in West Dayton to solve the healthcare desert left by the closing of Good Samaritan Hospital in 2018. To put a new project on the November ballot, the CCC is planning a signature-gathering effort. Responding to a severe demand for easily available healthcare services in the west side of Dayton, their aim is to build a publicly funded hospital there.
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The west Dayton population has felt the lack of local adequate healthcare especially when Good Samaritan Hospital closed and later was demolished. President of the CCC, Bishop Richard Cox, has been a well-known champion of closing this disparity.
“So it’s a devastating effect, a great effect in that whole community,” said Bishop Richard Cox, President of the Clergy Community Coalition, said to WDTN. Emphasizing the personal cost to families deprived of access to basic healthcare, he said that had the institution stayed running, fatalities could have been prevented.
If approved, the project would not only restore vital health services but also maybe boost local economic development by means of new employment and higher activity in healthcare services. The suggested solution is for a property tax increase, with the new hospital’s construction and running funded from the revenues.
Beginning at 1:30 p.m., the CCC will hold a drive-thru petition signing event at St. Luke Missionary Baptist Church this Sunday in order to get at least 1,200 signatures needed to send the matter to the Dayton City Commission. This event marks a major turning point in the community’s effort to submit their idea to the voters in November. Strong support for the project has come from former Good Samaritan Hospital staff members as well as community, therefore demonstrating the continuous need for a full-service hospital in the area.
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The Clergy Community Coalition’s strategy emphasizes a community’s will to close a significant healthcare disparity by means of public support and civic involvement. The group leaders think their efforts will be sufficient to impact the direction of healthcare in West Dayton as the day of petition signing draws near.
