EXCLUSIVE: STEPHEN BERGER BACKS CLOSING OF LICH
On Wednesday, Stephen Berger — whose panel last year recommended sacrificing the Downstate Medical Center facility in East Flatbush in favor of Long Island College Hospital in Cobble Hill — sent a letter to SUNY board chairman H. Carl McCall, in which he endorsed the planned closing of LICH in order to save Downstate.
The Brooklyn Eagle is reproducing Berger’s letter in its entirety.
This is in response to your request that I comment on the present situation regarding LICH Hospital and the plan outlined by Dr. Williams in his comments to the SUNY Board of Trustees. In particular you asked that l do so in light of the comments made in the MRT Report of the Brooklyn Working Group.
Dr. Williams approach is one I truly support. It is a response to the reality of emerging changes in Brooklyn and problems which have accelerated since we issued our report. As a reminder, we began working and gathering data for the report almost two years ago, issued the report over a year ago and while the recommendations were aimed at stabilizing the health care environment in Brooklyn and creating a platform for beginning a redesign which would emphasize available access to primary care and a reconfiguration of the existing infrastructure none of our recommendations have been in fact put in place.