DEATH’S DOOR: Long Island College Hospital respiratory therapist Jeannie Segall yesterday protests the imminent closure of the Brooklyn facility. (Robert Mecea)
Despite a clear court order, and a punishing heat wave, state officials are going ahead with plans to shut down Brooklyn’s Long Island College Hospital this weekend, according to health-care workers.
Doctors, nurses, health-care workers and patients said they were given notice yesterday of the imminent closure, and staffers are already making arrangements to move the last of its patients — including a newborn in the neonatal intensive-care unit — to other facilities.
“SUNY has sped up the shut-down calendar to try to make sure they can close this hospital and sell off this real estate before this community has a chance to act,” said Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, a candidate for mayor.
“We’re not going to stand for it.”
De Blasio was arrested last week at a rally in support of LICH.
For weeks, the Cobble Hill hospital has been sending patients to other area hospitals, rescheduling out-patient procedures and diverting ambulances on emergency calls.
SUNY Downstate Medical Center, which runs LICH, has directed its doctors to perform procedures at other facilities where they have admitting privileges.
Meanwhile, about 250 beds remain empty, and some units are fully staffed. “It’s like being dressed up with nowhere to go,” said paramedic Ryan Schiavone, 28.
Among the last 18 patients was a premature baby in the neonatal ICU, said Alice Garner, who heads the unit. Garner said she defied orders to discharge the little patient.
“I ended up getting a call yesterday about it,” Garner said. “It was a warning that it better not happen again. They actually said that to me.”
Officials said the institution has been bleeding financially, losing $15 million a month. The shutdown has been held up by a temporary restraining order, but SUNY lawyers have argued that state agencies are exempt.
Nurses, meanwhile, say response times are lower in parts of Brooklyn because ambulances have been lined up at Methodist Hospital in Park Slope trying to unload patients there.
“It’s dangerous,” said critical-care nurse Julie Semente, who has worked at LICH for 30 years. “It’s putting people’s lives at risk all over Brooklyn.”
Schiavone has seen the fallout.
“I spoke to a woman yesterday whose mother waited two days to be seen at Methodist Hospital because they were so backed up,” he said.
A SUNY Downstate spokesman did not return a call for comment.
Additional reporting by Rich Calder and Sally Goldenberg