Emergency room crisis spreads across Brooklyn with second hospital on ‘diversion’
LICH, Brooklyn Hospital Center ERs closed to ambulances, delays spread
The emergency room crisis in Brooklyn expanded as high temperatures knocked out Brooklyn Hospital Center’s ER Monday afternoon. Combined with a controversial ambulance ban imposed on Long Island College Hospital (LICH) in Cobble Hill by its parent institution, SUNY Downstate, the diversion took out most of the emergency capacity in northwestern and Downtown Brooklyn and in Fort Greene.
FDNY spokesman Frank Dwyer told the Brooklyn Eagle that “Brooklyn Hospital is on diversion due to a heat issue and by the request of the hospital. During periods of extreme heat, call volume increases, as do the number of patients brought to hospitals.”
A harried doctor in Brooklyn Hospital Center’s ER told the Eagle on Tuesday that there was a problem with the air conditioning.