SUNY votes — again — to kill Brooklyn’s LICH
Despite impassioned statements from hospital staff, patients and community members, SUNY’s board of trustees voted on Tuesday to close Brooklyn’s Long Island College Hospital (LICH), at a meeting in Purchase, New York.
This is the second vote to close LICH. Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Johnny Lee Baynes ruled last Thursday the original board meeting didn’t comply with the Open Meetings Law.
While the roughly 120 LICH supporters who traveled to Purchase by bus Tuesday morning blamed SUNY Downstate for mismanaging the Cobble Hill hospital, SUNY said the move was necessary to save financially troubled SUNY Downstate in East Flatbush.
“The bottom line is when I got here we had two distressed hospitals,” said Downstate’s head, Dr. John Williams, during the hearing. “We are losing money — $12 million a month between the two hospitals.” Dr. Williams added that the infrastructure “was falling apart.”