Gov. Cuomo’s mixed LICH message falls flat in Brooklyn
Just one day after Governor Andrew Cuomo called the perilous state of Long Island College Hospital (LICH) in Brooklyn part of “a serious situation affecting a lot of people,” the Governor was reported by the Daily News as saying that northwestern Brooklyn should give up its 155-year-old hospital and let real estate developers have at it.
Singling out Brookdale, Interfaith and LICH as being close to folding, Cuomo said in his 2014 Executive Budget address on Tuesday, “We need Health and Human Services to act . . . to keep these hospitals open.” He added, “We need [the $10 billion Medicaid waiver funds] now. There is truly a crisis in Brooklyn.”
It appeared on Wednesday, however, that the Governor had a different message for LICH.
“You don’t need the hospital beds they now have,” he told the News, saying that LICH should be sold quickly to one of the two developers vying for the valuable Brownstone Brooklyn property.