Nurses Descend Upon Albany, Protesting LICH Closure

Members of the New York State Nurses Association descended upon Albany over the weekend to protest the closure of community hospitals, among them: LICH in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn. 

The rally was coordinated in reaction to the vote by SUNY Downstate Medical Center earlier this month to close financially-strained Long Island College Hospital, in favor of selling the property for real estate development. Gov. Andrew Cuomo has also recently proposed opening a "for profit" experimental hospital in Brooklyn, which the nurses also oppose.

"The Department of Health wants to close hospitals in Brooklyn and open a dangerous for-profit experiment," said Dan Lutz, a spokesman for the nurses, told the Albany Times-Union. "Brooklyn shouldn't be the place where you experiment."

Hundreds of protesters, "wearing red and chanting slogans like 'keep our hospitals open' and 'walk a shift in our shoes' argued that closing such community hospitals and allowing the so-called for-profit hospitals into the state would deprive economically disadvantaged and minority residents of necessary health care," wrote the paper.

The nurses chose this weekend to gather upon Albany as it coincided with the caucus and the advent of budget season.

To appeal to the DOH to keep LICH open, click here.