Community Corner
SUNY Board In Talks To Close LICH, Report
A spokesperson told stakeholders SUNY Downstate suffers financially trying to carry Cobble Hill's beleaguered medical center, according to the Times.
After 155 years of healing others, Cobble Hill's only hospital may be unable to save itself, according to recent reports.
A spokesperson for SUNY Downstate told The New York Times on Wednesday that the board has discussed the possibility of closing Long Island College Hospital, which it acquired in 2011, due to loss of money and patients.
Hospital representative David Doyle said a vote on the issue could happen in “the near future, as part of a plan to ensure that SUNY Downstate, a major teaching and hospital center in Brooklyn, could survive," reported the Times.
Find out what's happening in Carroll Gardens-Cobble Hillwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
The statement arrives just a week after a damaging audit from state comptroller, Thomas P. DiNapoli, which asserted that financial problems at LICH have pushed SUNY Downstate toward insolvency.
LICH—which has 506 beds and was the first hospital in the U.S. to use stethoscopes and anesthesia—has been struggling the last 17 years to remain vital in a gentrifying neighborhood whose residents predominantly seek medical care in Manhattan, the article said.
Find out what's happening in Carroll Gardens-Cobble Hillwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
An average of 284 beds went unused each day of 2010, according to DiNapoli's report.
What do you think readers? Does this Brooklyn medical institution deserve to be saved? What are your feelings about Long Island College Hospital?
Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.
