TRENTON – Senator Sandra Bolden Cunningham (D-Hudson), Chairwoman of the Senate Higher Education Committee, released the following statement today in response to the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey Advisory Committee report:
“University Hospital is a vital part of North Jersey’s communities. I am pleased that this hospital will stay a fixture of Newark and am hopeful that the UMDNJ Advisory Committee’s intentions are to maintain the current level of services provided by University Hospital for the residents of the region. It is imperative that we approach these changes with caution so that we do not sacrifice either the quality health care for the patients of University Hospital or the educational experiences for the health care and medical students of Newark.
“Additionally, I look forward to inviting and hearing testimony in the Senate Higher Education Committee from those involved in this reorganization of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, so that we may have a complete understanding of the statewide benefits and implications with the creation of the New Jersey Health Sciences University in Newark, the merger of Rutgers-Camden into Rowan University in South Jersey, and the realignment of Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, the School of Public Health and the Cancer Institute of New Jersey into Rutgers University in New Brunswick and Piscataway.”