BP MARKOWITZ STATEMENT ON PROPOSED LONG ISLAND COLLEGE HOSPITAL CUTS

Statement on Long Island College Hospital announcing plans to close maternity, pediatric and dental units as well as school-based clinics:

“I echo the concerns of the community when I say that this is distressing. This is the second announcement in two months, and despite the assurances of leadership, the situation has seemingly continued to deteriorate. As Borough President, I am not only saddened by plans to pull the plug on several of the basic health care services that have been provided by Long Island College Hospital (LICH) for generations, I am also not pleased that these decisions have been presented by LICH and Continuum as a “done deal” rather than being brought before public officials and others who could potentially have helped prevent such sudden, drastic cutbacks.

It would be one thing if neighborhoods served by LICH were facing significant population decline or the market was not here for services like obstetrics, pediatrics, dentistry, and school clinics—but let’s face it, all you have to do is walk down Court Street, Smith Street or Atlantic Avenue and count the strollers, or see the small children crowding area parks, or check out the number of students over-filling neighborhood schools to know that there is an exploding population of young families in great need of maternity, pediatric, and school-based medical services. Not only that, this community is expecting to grow by 15 to 20 thousand residents in the near future. And let’s not forget the number of seniors in the LICH catchment area who will also need increased, not decreased, services in the days ahead. This should have been seen by hospital leadership as a chance to rise to the occasion and become known as the gold standard in all of these service areas—but instead, the opportunity is being squandered as LICH and Continuum turn their backs on the families of Downtown and “Brownstone” Brooklyn.

Certainly, in the recent past we have seen other Brooklyn hospitals struggling, and we know that Long Island College Hospital is not alone in dealing with the challenges of this financial climate, but I strongly believe that better, more proactive management at LICH could have stopped this hemorrhaging of red ink by doing things like having a financial risk management plan in place and working closely with a community advisory board. In fact, I am calling on LICH now to do both—form a community advisory board, on which the Borough President will have a seat, by the end of the year and draft both a comprehensive financial plan and risk management plan that will at least protect the hospital’s remaining services.

The closing of LICH is unthinkable, and my office still holds out hope that there may be a way to save the services LICH has threatened to cut. I and my public health policy advisor Yvonne Graham will be reaching out to all groups who may be able to salvage these units—from LICH doctors to unions and interested outside medical groups who have expressed an interest in maintaining these important services in Downtown Brooklyn. We look forward to working with the LICH advisory board when it is formed. We are also convening an emergency task force of health care stakeholders in Brooklyn to assess the big picture of medical care options in this borough and begin to work together to stop the bleeding and restore health to our Brooklyn health care systems.”

—— Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz