Emergency room crisis hits Brooklyn as SUNY bans ambulances from LICH
Nurse: ‘God forbid there’s a collision on the BQE’
“If you live in western Brooklyn, don’t have a heart attack,” residents of Cobble Hill, Brooklyn Heights, Carroll Gardens, Boerum Hill, Red Hook and DUMBO heard Thursday as they learned that SUNY Downstate banned ambulances from bringing patients to Long Island College Hospital’s (LICH) emergency room.
Paramedics told the Brooklyn Eagle that they had orders to deliver patients to either Methodist Hospital in Park Slope or SUNY Downstate’s University Hospital of Brooklyn in East Flatbush.
“Depending on traffic that might add ten minutes, maybe more,” one EMT told this reporter. “When you have a heart attack, time matters.”
According to Google Maps, which tracks current traffic conditions, the ride to SUNY Downstate from Fairway Market in Red Hook would take 30 minutes, as of 3 p.m. on Thursday. The same trip to LICH would take 8 minutes.