LICH patients caught in tending tug-of-war
By Madonna Frost
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Cash-strapped SUNY Downstate middle tried to get rid of patients from island faculty Hospital (LICH) on Saturday despite a brand new judicial writ forbidding their removal, consistent with Public Advocate Bill First State Blasio and nurses at LICH.
Hospital employees known as the NYPD doubly over the weekend to enforce the Temporary Restraining Order (TRO).
A interpreter for SUNY Downstate, Steven Joseph Greenberg, told the ny Times that no tries had been created to maneuver patients on Saturday. The Brooklyn Eagle, however, photographed associate degree senior patient being wheeled on a stretcher outside the hospital on Saturday afternoon. it absolutely was not clear wherever she was being transported to.
The Times conjointly rumored that a patient WHO was transferred to Downstate from LICH last week has died.
"Today, the ny town department of local government came to island faculty Hospital and stopped SUNY from unlawfully transferring patients out of our hospital. The police came with the judicial writ in hand and did their duty to uphold the order,” First State Blasio same in a very statement on Saturday.
On Sunday night, LICH nurses rumored on Twitter that Downstate was “locking doors everywhere the hospital," prompting worries that this was a “violation of [the] code.”
Supreme Court Justice Confederate soldier Lee Baynes issued the order on Fri at First State Blasio’s request.
On Saturday, Downstate filed a motion to charm the order, consistent with the days.
At a group discussion on Sunday, First State Blasio same, “We’ll be back in court tomorrow.”
Downstate, in East Flatbush, has obtained permission from the state Department of Health to shut LICH, a 155-year-old Cobble Hill hospital it took over 2 years agone.
But elective representatives and residents ar fighting the closure, spoken communication it might cripple health care in northwestern Brooklyn.
Justice Baynes issued the order on Fri on the grounds that First State Blasio’s filing incontestible “immediate and irreparable injury if Respondent’s [Downstate’s] actions aren't briefly restrained till a hearing on a preliminary injunction,” that he regular for July twenty five.
Justice Baynes wrote that SUNY Downstate was instantly restrained “from taking any action or supplying any order that might interrupt, hamper or curtail medical professionals punctually utilized by or operating inside LICH from providing medical aid, as well as emergency medical services.” He conjointly forbid Downstate from fun ambulances or patients from the hospital.
However, Downstate continuing to divert ambulances from LICH over the weekend and refused to permit LICH to admit patients.
LICH serves a swath of Brooklyn stretching from Red Hook to the Brooklyn shipyard, encompassing brownstone neighborhoods like Brooklyn Heights and Cobble Hill beside Downtown Brooklyn.
Amidst almost-daily protests and legal actions by LICH supporters (another rally is planned for Wed at four p.m. in Cadman Plaza Park), Downstate has been dismantlement LICH so as to “monetize” its valuable realty assets as a part of its own survival set up.
Downstate has barred ambulances from LICH’s hospital room, closed core departments, removed residents in coaching and prohibited new admissions.
SUNY’s closure set up incorporate LICH to “cease admitting patients from its Emergency Department (ED) at high noon on July twenty two, 2013,” and to transfer all remaining patients by July twenty eight.
Elected officers known as DOH’s approval of the closure set up, “a terrible mistake.”
“By permitting SUNY to mothball LICH before a brand new operator is in situ, DOH's call undermines a semipermanent tending resolution for the community and Brooklyn,” said Sen. Daniel Squadron. “There ar solutions for LICH, and important interest from potential operators -- however the state and SUNY have move to undermine those, rather than operating collaboratively to form them a reality.”
Since ban ambulances from LICH, ERs across Brooklyn are weak and waiting times have increased.
During last week’s wave, Brooklyn Hospital Center in Fort Greene, the nearest hospital to LICH, pleased ambulances from its own ER, whereas ambulances lined informed the road outside Methodist middle for hours.
Since Downstate began evacuation patients from LICH, LICH’s money losses have increased to $15 million a month, consistent with Downstate’s accounting – quite 5 times the losses LICH incurred as recently as Feb.
Even multi-billionaire Warren Buffet has expressed dismay regarding LICH’s scenario, consistent with the Wall Street Journal. The $135 million left in associate degree “untouchable” trust to LICH by Brooklyn Heights residents Donald and Mildred Othmer, WHO created their fortune by investment in Buffet’s county Anne Hathaway, has been drained over the years, starting beneath the possession of the previous operator, time Health Partners, and continued beneath Downstate’s tenure.
While the court same Downstate would be vulnerable to repay all the Othmer cash, Downstate President John Williams wrote in a very Gregorian calendar month letter to state controller Thomas DiNapoli that the university would "replenish the Trust only if and if it's ready to."
July 22, 2013 - 1:28am
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