NEW YORK (CMC) — Caribbean American Congresswoman Yvette D Clarke has hailed the decision of New York Governor, Andrew Cuomo, to keep a major hospital in the Caribbean community open for another 30 days.

Interfaith Medical Centre, on the border of the Crown Heights and Bedford-Stuyvesant sections of Brooklyn, employs hundreds of Caribbean healthcare professionals.

Clarke, the daughter of Jamaican immigrants, who represents the 9th Congressional District in Brooklyn, said the Governor’s decision “allows for an agreement that will protect access to health care for the more than 200,000people who depend on the services available at the hospital.

“We need to establish our priorities, based on our values as a community that believes every person should have access to health care,” she told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) on Tuesday. 

“We cannot allow even a single person to lose access to services,” added Clarke, who had asked Governor Cuomo to work with United States federal and state officials to protect the hospital. 

“Without these services, each of us is at risk of illness and death,” she added.

Under the agreement between Cuomo and hospital administrators, Interfaith Medical Centre will avoid the scheduled closure of ambulance services on December 26, 2013 and the scheduled closure of the hospital itself on January 7, 2014. 

“Our work must continue. In the next few weeks, we will demonstrate that Interfaith Medical Centre remains a critical part of our community, where thousands of people work to provide the highest quality of health care to a population that has in many instances been underserved,” said Clarke, a member of the US House of Representatives’ Committee on Small Business, Ethics and Homeland Security.

“I will work with Governor Cuomo to protect access to health care for the families and children of Brooklyn,” said Clarke, who is also the Ranking Member of the US House of Representatives’ Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection and Security Technologies.