THURSDAY IS DOOMSDAY: Critics mobilize on eve of LICH death vote
Saying there has been no financial transparency in the rush to close a vital Brooklyn resource, Downtown Brooklyn political leaders and staff of Long Island College Hospital are calling for a postponement of a vote scheduled for Thursday that is expected to doom the financially troubled hospital.
LICH supporters said they would hold a rally before SUNY’s board of trustees meets at 3 pm at the SUNY School of Optometry, 33 W. 42nd St. in Manhattan. The action begins at 1 p.m. when SUNY’s Academic Medical Centers/Hospital Committee, meeting behind closed doors, hears SUNY Downstate Medical Center President Dr. John Williams’ recommendation that LICH be closed.
SUNY trustees will hold an open meeting between 3 and 5 p.m. during which members of the public, who sign up before 2:30 p.m., will be allowed to speak. Afterwards, the SUNY board’s executive committee, meeting in private, is expected to vote to close LICH.
The full board is scheduled to meet, also behind closed doors, early Friday, at which time they are expected to affirm the executive committee’s death sentence.