It’s official: The mayor’s office has confirmed the winning bid to buy bankrupt Long Island College Hospital is collapsing in a morass of dubious financing and lack of specific details.
It’s collapsing for exactly the reason it was selected: Its proposal included a plan to preserve LICH as a full-service hospital. As The Post has pointed out all along, a full-service hospital at the site, which is what the mayor and his activist friends have been holding out for, is simply out of touch with the economic realities of 21st-century health care in New York.
On Wednesday, Mayor de Blasio tossed in the towel by calling on SUNY to move to another bidder. SUNY is desperate to unload the property, which is costing it $13 million a month to keep going.
Just why de Blasio and his allies thought Brooklyn Health Partners could succeed is a mystery. Formed just three months ago, the company had never run a hospital or built anything in New York. And its supposed health affiliate said it knew nothing about any deal to operate LICH.
Its bid won for one reason: The selection process was rigged in favor of proposals for a full-service hospital. Activist members of the selection committee downgraded any proposal that didn’t include the hospital, no matter how economically viable. Which was fine with the mayor, who initially said that “the fact that the process yielded a facility with a very substantial health-care element speaks volumes.” It sure did.
Now the last laugh may be on de Blasio & Co. Under the same rigged rules they demanded, SUNY must now negotiate with The Peebles Company, which came in second — and which proposes only a freestanding ER and an urgent-care center along with residential housing.
In contrast to Brooklyn Health Partners, Peebles has a long track record and is partnering with Maimonides and North Shore-LIJ. So memo to Mayor Bill: Be careful what you wish for — you might just get it.